i LIKE -7VND- FORM
1 BY-WALTER.- CRTf
LONDOH:
LINE AND FORM
•BY-WALTER- CR7WE-
LONDON: G. BELL & SONS, LTD
1914
N-C
medium 8w, 1900.
7 Sv0t 1902, 1904, 1908,
CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON
PREFACE
AS in the case of " The Bases of Design,"
to which this is intended to form a com-
panion volume, the substance of the following
chapters on Line and Form originally formed
a series of lectures delivered to the students of
the Manchester Municipal School of Art.
There is no pretension to an exhaustive
treatment of a subject it would be difficult enough
to exhaust, and it is dealt with in a way intended
to bear rather upon the practical work of an art
school, and to be suggestive and helpful to those
face to face with the current problems of drawing
and design.
These have been approached from a personal
point of view, as the results of conclusions arrived
at in the course of a busy working life which
has left but few intervals for the elaboration of
theories apart from practice, and such as they
are, these papers are now offered to the wider
circle of students and workers in the arts of
design as from one of themselves.
They were illustrated largely by means of rough
sketching in line before my student audience, as
well as by photographs and drawings. The rough
diagrams have been re-drawn, and the other
illustrations reproduced, so that both line and tone
blocks are used, uniformity being sacrificed to
fidelity.
WALTER CRANE.
Kensington, Ju/y, 1900.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Origin and Function of Outline — Silhouette — Defini-
tion of Boundaries by — Power of Characterization by —
Formation of Letters — Methods of Drawing in Line—
The Progressive Method — The Calligraphic Method —
The Tentative Method — The Japanese Direct Brush
Method— The Oval Method— The Rectangular Method
— Quality of Line — Linear Expression of Movement —
Textures — Emotion — Scale of Linear Expression ... i
^CHAPTER II
The Language of Line — Dialects — Comparison of the
Style of Various Artists in Line — Scale of Degrees in
Line — Picture Writing — Relation of Line to Form — Two
Paths — The Graphic Purpose — Aspect — The Ornamental
Purpose — Typical Treatment or Convention — Rhythm —
Linear Plans in Pattern Designing — Wall-paper Design —
Controlling Forms — Memory — Evolution in Design —
Variety in Unity — Counterbalance — Linear Logic — Re-
curring Line and Form — Principle of Radiation — Range
and Use of Line 23
CHAPTER III
Of the Choice and Use of Line — Degree and Emphasis
— Influence of the Photograph — The Value of Emphasis
-The Technical Influence— The Artistic Purpose— In-
fluence of Material and Tools — Brushwork — Charcoal-
Pencil— Pen 51
CHAPTER IV
Of the Choice of Form — Elementary Forms — Space-
filling— Grouping — Analogies of Form — Typical Forms
vii
CONTENTS /PAGE
of Ornament — Ornamental Units — Equivalents in Form
— Quantities in Design — Contrast — Value of Variations
of Similar or Allied Forms — Use of the Human Figure
and Animal Forms in Ornamental Design 73
CHAPTER V
Of the Influence of Controlling Lines, Boundaries
Spaces, and Plans in Designing — Origin of Geometric
Decorative Spaces and Panels in Architecture — Value of
Recurring Line — Tradition — Extension — Adaptability —
Geometric Structural Plans — Frieze and Field —Ceiling
Decoration— Co-operative Relation . 108
CHAPTER VI
~j
Of the Fundamental Essentials of Design : Line, Form,
Space — Principles of Structural and Ornamental Line in
Organic Forms — Form and Mass in Foliage — Roofs —
The Mediaeval City — Organic and Accidental Beauty-
Composition : Formal and Informal— Power of Linear
Expression — Relation of Masses and Lines — Principles
of Harmonious Composition 138
CHAPTER VII
Of the Relief of Form— Three Methods— Contrast-
Light and Shade, and Modelling — The Use of Contrast
and Planes in Pattern Designing — Decorative Relief-
Simple Linear Contrast — Relief by Linear Shading —
Different Emphasis in relieving Form by Shading Lines
— Relief by means of Light and Shade alone without
Outline— Photographic Projection — Relief by different
Planes and Contrasts of Concave and Convex Surfaces in
Architectural Mouldings — Modelled Relief— Decorative
Use of Light and Shade, and different Planes in Modelling
and Carving— Egyptian System of Relief Sculpture-
Greek and Gothic Architectural Sculpture, influenced by
Structural and Ornamental Feeling — Sculptural Tombs,
Medals, Coins, Gems — Florentine Fifteenth-century Re-
liefs— Desiderio di Settignano 165
viii
CONTENTS
CHAPTER VIII PAGE
Of the Expression of Relief in Line-drawing — Graphic
Aim and Ornamental Aim — Superficial Appearance and
Constructive Reality — Accidents and Essentials — Repre-
sentation and Suggestion of Natural Form in Design —
The Outward Vision and the Inner Vision 204
CHAPTER IX
Of the Adaptation of Line and Form in Design, in
various materials and methods — Mural Decoration —
Fresco-work of the Italian Painters — Modern Mural Work
— Mural Spacing and Pattern Plans — Scale — The Skirting
-The Dado — Field of the Wall— The Frieze— Panelling
—Tapestry — Textile Design — Persian Carpets — Effect of
Texture on Colour — Prints— Wall-paper — Stained Glass 224
CHAPTER X
Of the Expression and Relief of Line and Form by
Colour— Effect of same Colour upon different Grounds
— Radiation of Colour — White Outline to clear Colours
— Quality of Tints relieved upon other Tints — Comple-
mentaries — Harmony — The Colour Sense — Colour Pro-
portions— Importance of Pure Tints — Tones and Planes
— The Tone of Time— Pattern and Picture— A Pattern
not necessarily a Picture, but a Picture in principle a
Pattern — Chiaroscuro — Examples of Pattern-work and
Picture-work — Picture- patterns and Pattern-pictures . . 256
INDEX 283
IX
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
The Origin* of Outline xvi
Silhouettes 2
Coast and Mountain Lines — Gulf of Nauplia 3
Proportions of Roman Capital Letters and of lower-case
German text. From Diirer's " Geometrica "... 5
The Progressive Method of Drawing in Line 7
The Calligraphic Method 8
The Tentative Method 9
The Oval and Rectangular Methods 1 1
Lines of Characterization in the Form and Feature of
Flowers : Lily and Poppy 13
Silhouette of Beech Leaves and Line Rendering of the
same „ ' . . . 14
Lines of Movement 15
Effect of Wind upon Trees 16
Line Arrangement in ribbed Sea-sand 17
Lines of different Textures, Structures, and Services . . 19
Lines of Exaltation and Rejoicing in Unison. The Morn-
ing Stars, after William Blake 20
Lines of Grief and Dejection : Designs from Flaxman's
Homer 21
Landscape 22
Scale of various Degrees of Linear Weight and Emphasis . 2 5
Curvilinear Scale of Direction 26
Rectangular Scale of Direction 26
Picture Writing 28
Olive Branch, from Nature 30
Olive Branch, simplified in Decorative Treatment . . . 32
Study of Horned Poppy 33
Adaptation of Horned Poppy in Design : Vertical Panel
for Needlework 34
Question and Answer in Line 35, 36
x
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Diagram showing the Use of a Geometric Basis in Design-
ing a Repeating Pattern 37
Use of Controlling Boundaries in Designing Sprays . . 39
Method of Testing a Repeating Pattern 41
Sketch to show how a Pattern of Diverse Elements may
be harmonized by Unity of Inclosing and Intermediary
Lines 42
The Principle of Counterbalance in different Systems of
Design 43
Border Units and Border Motive 45
Recurring Line and Form in Border Motives .... 46
Radiating Principle of Line in Natural Form 48
Radiating Lines of the Pectoral Muscles and Ribs ... 49
Vaulting of Chapter House, Westminster 50
Lines of Characterization of Feathers and Shells ... 5 2
Pen Drawing of Fruit 54
Effect of different Emphasis in Treatment of the same
Designs 57, 58
Effect of different Emphasis in the Drawing of Landscape 59
Example of Page Treatment to show Ornamental Relation
between Text and Pictures 60
Suggestion for a Carpet Pattern and Abstract Treatment of
the same on Point Paper as detail of Brussels Carpet 61
Brush Forms 66
Direct Brush Expression of Animal Form 67
Japanese Drawing of a Bird. From " The Hundred Birds
ofBari" 69
Elementary Geometrical Forms 74
Use of the same Forms in Architecture 74
Poppy-heads 75
Apple cut to show Position of Seeds 77
Cube and Sphere in Architectural Ornament 78
Filling of Square Space 80
Filling of Circular Space 81
Inlay Design : Pattern Units and Motives 82
Grouping of Allied Forms : Composition of Curves . . 84
Grouping of Allied Forms : Composition of Angles . . 85
Still-life Group illustrative of Wood-engraving .... 86
Japanese Diagonal Pattern 87
Treatment of Fruit and Leaf Forms : Corresponding
Curvature ... 88
xi
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Correspondence in General Contour between Leaf and
Tree 90
Some Analogies in Form 91
Tree of Typical Pattern Forms, Units and Systems . . 93
Sketches to show Use of Counterbalance, Quantity, and
Equivalents in Designing 96
Quantities and Counterchange of Border and Field in
Carpet Motives 97
Sketches to illustrate Value of different Quantities in
Persian Rugs 98,-! oo
Recurrence and Contrast in Border Motives . . . . 102
Use of inclosing Boundaries in Designing Animal Forms
in Decorative Pattern 104
Deco -ative Spacing of Figures within Geometric Bound-
aries 105
Simple Linear Motives and Pattern Bases 109
Use of Intervals in Repeating the same Ornamental Units 1 1 1
Designs of Floral, Human, and Animal Forms, governed
by Shape of inclosing Boundary 112
The Parthenon : Sketch to show Spaces used for Decora-
tive Sculpture in Greek Architecture 114
The Tower of the Winds, Athens 115
Sket :h of part of the Arch of Constantine to show spaces
for Decorative Sculpture in Roman Architecture . 117
Byzantine (Mosaic) Treatment of Architectural Structural
Features : Apse, S. Vitale, Ravenna 1 1 8
Detail of Canopy of Tomb of Gervaise-Alard, Winchelsea 1 20
Walberswick Church: West Door 120
Miserere in St. David's Cathedral ...122
R cessed Panel from the Tomb of Bishop John Morgan,
St. David's Cathedral 123
Corbel from Bishop Vaughan's Chapel, St. David's Ca-
thedral 124
Gothic Tile Pattern, St. David's Cathedral 125
Surface Pattern Motives derived from Lines of Structure 128
Repeating Patterns built upon Square and Circular Bases 129
Plan of a Drop Repeat 131
Sketch Designs to show Relation between Frieze and
Field in Wall-paper 135
Principles of Structural and Ornamental Line in Natural
Forms 140
xii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Radiating, Recurring and Counterbalancing Lines in the
Structure of the Skeleton and the Muscles. . . . 142
General Principles of Line and Form in the Branching
and Foliage Masses of Trees 143
Principles of Structure in Foliage Masses 145
Albert Diirer : Detail from " The Prodigal Son " ... 146
Albert Diirer: St. Anthony 147
Roof-lines : Rothenburg 149
St. Margaret Street, Canterbury 153
Figure Designs controlled by Geometric Boundaries .155, 156
Expression of Storm and Calm in Landscape .... 159
Expression of Repose and Action 161
Controlling Lines of Movement : Movement in a Pro-
cession 163
Lines left by a Watercourse — Lines governing fallen
Debris from a Quarry 163
Relief of Form, (T) by Outline, (2) by Contrast, (3) by
Light and Shade 167
Relief of Form and Line in Pattern Design by means of
Contrast and the Use of Planes 169
Treatment of Mantling (i4th-i6th centuries) . . . 172, 173
Brass of Martin de Visch, Bruges, 1452 . . . . . . 175
Relief in Pattern Design by means of Simple Linear
Contrasts 177
Relief by adding Shading Lines to Outline 178
Relief by Diagonal Shading 179
Different Method and different Emphasis in Relieving
Form by Shading Lines 181
Albert Diirer's Principle in the Treatment of Drapery :
From the Woodcut in the " Life of the Virgin "
Series 183
Albert Diirer : Pen-drawing 1 84
Filippino Lippi : Study of Drapery 185
Raphael: Studies of Drapery 186
Relief by means of Light and Shade alone, in Pen-drawing
without Outline 188
Relief by means of White Line on a Dark Ground and
vice versa 189
Relief in Architectural Mouldings 191
Roman Treatment of Corinthian Order, Forum of Nerva,
Rome 193
xiii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Egyptian Relief Sculpture : Thebes 195
Greek Relief: Eleusis 196
Egyptian Relief: Denderah 196
Chartres Cathedral : Carving on West Front .... 199
Chartres Cathedral : Tympanum of Central Door of West
Front 20 1
Medals of the Lords of Mantua, Cesena, and Ferrara, by
Vittore Pisano 203
Treatment of Draped Figure in Black on White Ground
and vice versa 206
Treatment of the same Figure in Light and Shade . . 207
The Graphic Principle of the Expression of Form by
Light and Shade ; with and without Outline . . . 209
Linear Expression of Features, Feathers and Fur : Notes
from Nature 211
Sketches to illustrate the Graphic and the Decorative
Treatment of Draped Figures 213
Decorative Treatment of Birds 215
Floral Designs upon Typical Inclosing Shapes of Indian
and Persian Ornament 217
Dancing Figure with the Governing Lines of the Move-
ment 218
Lines of Floral Growth and Structure : Lily and Rose . 219
Coast-lines, Gulf of Nauplia 221
Lines of Movement in Water, Shallow Stream over Sand 221
Giotto: Chastity (Lower Church, Assisi) 225
Pinturicchio : Mural Painting (Piccolomini Chapel, Siena) 227
Diagram showing the Principal Fundamental Plans or
Systems of Line governing Mural Spacing and Dec-
orative Distribution 231
Diagram to show how the apparent Depth of a Space is
increased by the Use of Vertical Lines, and its
apparent Width by the Use of Horizontal Lines . . 233
Decorative Spacing of the Wall : Sketches (to half-inch
scale) to show different Treatment and Proportions 235
Figure of Laura, from the Burgundian Tapestries : The
Triumphs of Petrarch, in the South Kensington Mu-
seum . . 239
Pinturicchio: Fresco in the Appartimenti Borgia . . -. 241
Portion of Detail of the Holy Carpet of the Mosque of
Ardebil : Persian, sixteenth century 243
xiv
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Sketch to illustrate Treatment of Borders in a Persian
Rug 245
Arras Tapestry : Diagrams to show the Principle of
Working and Surface Effect 247
Contrasting Surfaces in Warp and Weft in Woven Silk
Hanging 249
Indian printed Cotton Cover : South Kensington Mu-
seum 251
Stained Glass Treatment : Inclosure of Form and Colour
by Lead Lines 253
Sketch to show Effect of the same Colour and Form upon
different Coloured Grounds 257
Principle of the Effect of the Blending or Blurring of
Colours at their Edges 259
Use of Black and White Outline to clear the Edges of
Coloured Forms upon different Coloured Grounds . 259
J. Van Eyck: Portrait of J. Arnolfini and his WTife . . 268
Ver Meer of Delft : Lady at a Spinet 269
Botticelli: The Nativity 273
Holbein: The Ambassadors 275
Botticelli: Madonna and Child 276
Crivelli : The Annunciation . 277
Perugino : The Virgin in Adoration with St. Michael and
St. Raphael, and Tobias 278
Titian: Bacchus and Ariadne 279
Madox Brown : Christ Washing St. Peter's Feet . . . 281
XV
THE ORIGIN OF OUTLINE.
OF LINE AND FORM
CHAPTER I
Origin and Function of Outline — Silhouette— Definition of
Boundaries by — Power of Characterization by — Formation of
Letters — Methods of Drawing in Line — The Progressive
Method— The Calligraphic Method — The Tentative Method
—The Japanese Direct Brush Method — The Oval Method —
The Rectangular Method — Quality of Line — Linear Expression
of Movement — Textures — Emotion — Scale of Linear Expres-
sion.
OUTLINE, one might say, is the Alpha and
Omega of Art. It is the earliest mode of
expression among primitive peoples, as it is with
the individual child, and it has been cultivated for
its power of characterization and expression, and as
an ultimate test of draughtsmanship, by the most
accomplished artists of all time.
The old fanciful story of its origin in the work
of a lover who traced in charcoal the boundary of
the shadow of the head of his sweetheart as cast
upon the wall by the sun, and thus obtained the first
profile portrait, is probably more true in substance
than in fact, but it certainly illustrates Disfunction
of outline as the definition of the boundaries of
form.
SILHOUETTE
As children we probably perceive forms in nature
defined as flat shapes of
colour relieved upon other
colours, or flat fields of
ight on dark, as a white
horse is defined upon the
green grass of a field, or a
black figure upon a back-
ground of snow.
To define the bound-
aries of such forms be-
comes the main object in
early attempts at artistic
expression. The atten-
tion is caught by the
edges — the shape of the
silhouette which remains the paramount means
of distinction of form when details and secondary
DEFINITION OF BOUNDARIES
characteristics are lost ; as the outlines of moun-
tains remain, or are even more clearly seen, when
distance subdues the details of their structure,
and evening mists throw them into flat planes
one behind the other, and leave nothing but the
delicate lines of their edges to tell their char-
acter. We feel the beauty and simplicity of such
effects in nature. We feel that the mind, through
the eye resting upon these quiet planes and deli-
OCWST & MOUNTAIN LINES
cutr or NAUPUI>V
cate lines, receives a sense of repose and poetic sug-
gestion which is lost in the bright noontide, with
all its wealth of glittering detail, sharp cut in light
and shade. There is no doubt that this typical
power of outline and the value of simplicity of mass
were perceived by the ancients, notably the Ancient
Egyptians and the Greeks, who both, in their own
ways, in their art show a wonderful power of char-
acterization by means of line and mass, and a deli-
cate sense of the ornamental value and quality of
i . A j
line.
FORMATION OF LETTERS
Regarding line — the useof outline from the point
of view of its value as a means of definition of form
and fact — its power is really only limited by the
power of draughtsmanship at the command of the
artist. From the archaic potters' primitive figures
or the rudimentary attempts of children at human
or animal forms up to the most refined outlines of
a Greek vase-painter, or say the artist of the Dream
of Poliphilus, the difference is one of degree. The
tyro with the pen, learning to write, splotches and
scratches, and painfully forms trembling, limping
O's and A's, till with practice and habitude, almost
unconsciously, the power to form firm letters is
acquired.
Writing, after all, is but a simpler form of draw-
ing, and we know that the letters of our alphabet
were originally pictures or symbols. The main
difference is that writing stops short with the ac-
quisition of the purely useful power of forming
letters and words, and is seldom pursued for the
sake of its beauty or artistic qualities as formerly ;
while drawing continually leads on to new diffi-
culties to be conquered, to new subtleties of line,
and fresh fascinations in the pursuit of distinction
and style.
The practice of forming letters with the pen or
brush, from good types, Roman and Gothic, how-
ever, would afford very good preliminary practice
to a student of line and form. The hand would
acquire directness of stroke and 'touch, while the
eye would grow accustomed to good lines of com-
position and simple constructive forms. QThe pro-
gressive nature of writing — the gradual building
up of the forms of the letters— and the necessity of
4
FORMATION OF LETTERS
dealing with recurring forms and lines, also, would
bear usefully upon after work in actual design. Al-
PROPORTIONS OF ROMAN CAPITAL LETTERS AND METHOD OF
DRAWING THEM (FROM ALBERT DURER'S " GEOMETRICA ").
bert Dtirer in his " Geometrica " gives methods on
which to draw the Roman capitals, and also the
PROPORTIONS OF LOWER-CASE GERMAN /TEXT AND METHOD OF
DRAWING THE LETTERS (FROM ALBERT DURER'S "GEO-
METRICA").
black letters, building the former upon the square
•and its proportions, the thickness of the down
strokes being one-eighth of square, the thin strokes
5
METHODS OF DRAWING IN LINE
being one-sixteenth, and the serifs being turned by
circles of one-fourth and one-eighth diameter. The
capital O, it will be noted, is formed of two circles
struck diagonally.
Letters may be taken as the simplest form of
definition by means of line. They have been re-
duced through centuries of use from their primitive
hieroglyphic forms to their present arbitrary and
fixed types, though even these fixed types are sub-
ject to the variation produced by changes of taste
and fancy.
But when we come to unformulated nature — to
the vast world of complex forms, ever changing
their aspect, full of life and movement, trees, flowers,
woods and waters, birds, beasts, fishes, the human
form — the problem how to represent any of these
forms, to express and characterize them by means
of so abstract a method as line-drawing, seems at
first difficult enough.
But since the growth of perception, like the
power of graphic representation, is gradual and
partial, though progressive, the eye and the mind
are generally first impressed with the salient fea-
tures and leading characteristics of natural forms,
just as the child's first idea of a human form is that
of a body with four straight limbs, with a prepon-
derating head, That is the first impression, and
it is unhesitatingly recorded in infantine outline.
The first aim, then, in drawing anything in line
is to grasp the general truths ^f^orm^character,
and expression^
There are various methods of proceeding in get-
ting an outline of any object or figure. To begin
with, the student might begin progressively defin-
6
THE PROGRESSIVE METHOD
ing the form by a series of stages in this way. Take
the profile of a bird, for instance ; the form might
be gradually built up by the combination of a series
of lines :
or take the simpler form of a flask bottle :
2 II 3
I
or a jar on the same principle :
i
or, simpler still, a leaf form, putting in the stem
first with one stroke (i) :
and building the form around it (2, 3).
This might be termed the calligrarjhic method^of
drawing; and in this method facmtyof hand might
b^-fthftter practised by attempting the definition of
forms by continuous strokes, or building it up by
7
THE CALLIGRAPHIC METHOD
as lew strokes as possible. The simpler types of
ornament consisting of meandering and flowing
lines can all be produced in this way, i.e., by con-
tinuous line, as well as natural forms treated in a
THE TENTATIVE METHOD
certain abstract or conventional way, which adapts
them to decoration.
Another method is to sketch in lightly guide
lines for main masses, building a sort of scaffold-
ing of light lines to assist the eye in getting the
correct outline in its place, using vertical centre
lines for symmetrical forms to get the poise right.
9
THE JAPANESE DIRECT BRUSH METHOD
This is the method very generally in use, but I
thing jt very desirable to practise direct drawing
as well, to acquire certainty of eye and facility of
hand ; and one must not mind failure at first, as
this kind of power and facility is so much a matter
of practice.
The Japanese, who draw with the brush, have
accustomed themselves to draw in a direct manner
without any preliminary sketching, and the charm
of their work is largely owing to that crisp fresh-
ness of touch only possible to their direct method.
The great object is to establish a perfectly inti-
mate correspondence between eye and hand, so
that the latter will record what the former per-
ceives.
Abundant specimens of the freedom and natural-
ism of the modern school of Japanese artists in
this direct brush method may be found in the
work of Bari,Jjjroshio^i, and Hokusai, and in the
numerous printiTand books of designs from their
hands. To all draughtsmen and designers they
are most valuable to study for their direct method
and sjmpje^means of expression of form and f^rt.
Accidental as they frequently seem in composition,
the placing of the drawing upon the paper is care-
fully considered before starting, and this, of course,
is always a very important point.
Yet another method of drawing, more especially
in relation to the drawing of the human figure and
animal forms, I may mention as a help to those
who do not feel strong enough for the direct
method. At the same time it must be borne in
mind that we can accustom ourselves totf/rj'method ;
and the more dependent we become upon a single
10
THE OVAL AND RECTANGULAR METHODS
method, the less facility we shall have for working
in any other. But for all that it is desirable to
master one method — that is, to be able to draw in
\vwtfreely in one way or another— and experience
and practice alone will enable us to find the method
most satisfactory.
This other method is to block in the principal
1 1
THE RECTANGULAR METHOD
masses of the forms we desire to represent by
means of a series of ovals, as shown in the illus-
tration, and when we have got the masses in their
proper relations, to proceed to draw in the careful
outline of the figure, or whatever it may be, upon
this substructure of guiding lines, correcting as we
go along. It would be quite possible to work on
the same principle, but upon a structure of more
or less rectangular masses. The real use of the
method is to assist the student to get a grasp of
the relation of the masses of a figure and a sense
of structure in drawing ; whether square or oval
blocking in is used may be a matter of choice. It
may be said for the oval forms that they resemble
the contours of the structure in human and animal
forms.
If one had a tendency to round one's forms too
much, it would be well to try the rectangular
method to correct this, and vice versa.
After a certain facility has been acquired in
rendering form by means of line, we shall perceive
further capacities of expression in its use, and
begin to note how different characteristics of form
and natural fact may be expressed by varying the
quality of our outline.
If we are drawing a plant or a flower, for in-
stance, we should endeavour to show by the quality
of our line the difference between the fine springing
curves in the structure of the lily, the solid seed-
centre and stiff radiation of the petals of the daisy,
and the delicate silky folds of the poppy.
But, as leaves come before flowers, it would be
best to begin with leaf forms and try to express
the character of oak and beech, lime and chestnut
12
QUALITY OF LINE
leaves, for instance, by means of outline. Probably
at first we shall feel dissatisfied with our outline
LINES OF CHARACTERIZATION IN THE FORM AND FEATURE OF
FLOWERS : LILY AND POPPY.
as not being full enough : it may look meagre in
quality and small in definition of form. This
QUALITY OF LINE
probably arises from not allowing enough space—
from setting the outline too much within the
boundary of the form. To correct this one cannot
do better than block in the form of the object we
are drawing (leaf, flower, or figure) with a full
brush in black silhouette, placing the object against
the light or white paper, so that its true boundary
may be seen uninterfered with by surface markings
SILHOUETTE OF BEECH LEAVES AND LINE RENDERING OF
THE SAME.
or shadows, and, concentrating our attention upon
the edge, follow it as carefully as possible with the
solid black. Then, if we compare the result with
our outline, it will help to show where it has failed ;
and the practice of thus blocking in with the brush
in solid silhouette will tend to encourage a larger
style of drawing, since good outline means good
perception of mass ; ancfas a generaTprincTple in
drawing, it^m1iyn5e~7ecommended to place one's
LINEAR EXPRESSION OF MOVEMENT
outline outside the silhouette boundary of the form
rather than within it ; that is to say, when the
figure or object is relieved in light against dark, as
the line in that case defines the edge against the
background. When the figure or object appears
as dark upon a light ground, however, the outline
should be within the silhouette, obviously, or its
delicate boundary is lost.
Another important attribute of line is its power
of expressing or suggesting movement. By a law of
•LINE5-OF nOVLMLMT
inseparable association, undulating lines approach-
ing the horizontal, or leading down to it, are con-
nected with the sense of repose ; whereas broken
curves and rectangular lines always suggest action
and unrest, or the resistance to force of some kind.
The recurrence of a series of lines in the same
direction in a kind of crescendo or wave-like
movement suggests continuous pressure of force
in the same direction, as in this series of instant-
aneous actions of a man bowling, where the line
drawn through or touching the highest points in
15
LINEAR EXPRESSION OF MOVEMENT
each figure takes the line of the curve of a wave.
The wave-line, indeed, may be said not only to
suggest movement, but also to describe its direc-
tion and force. It is, in fact, the line of movement.
The principle may be seen in a simpler way, as
Hogarth points out in his " Analysis of Beauty,"
by observing the line described along a wall by
the head of a man walking along the street. Or,
as we may see sometimes near the coast, trees
exposed to the constant pressure of the wind illus-
trate this recurrence of lines in the same direction
governing their general shape ; and as each tree
is forced to spread in the direction away from the
wind, the effect is that of their being always strug-
gling against its pressure even in the calmest
weather; and this is entirely due to our association
of wind-movement with this peculiar linear ex-
pression.
Flowing water, again, is expressed by certain
recurring wave lines, which remind us of the ancient
linear symbols of the zigzag and meander used
from the earliest times to express water. In the
16
LINEAR EXPRESSION OF MOVEMENT
streams that channel the sands of the sea-shore
when the tide recedes we may see beautiful flow-
ing lines, sometimes crossing like a network, and
sometimes running into a series of shell-like waves ;
while the sands themselves are ribbed and chan-
nelled and modelled by the recurring movement
17 c
LINEAR EXPRESSION OF TEXTURES
of the waves, which leave upon them the impress
and the expression of their motion (much as in a
more delicate medium the air-currents impress the
fields of cloud, and give them their characteristic
forms).
Textures and surfaces, too, fall within the range
of linear expression. One would naturally use
lines of totally different consistency and character
to express rough or smooth surfaces : to express
the difference of value, for instance, between the
ivory-like smoothness of an egg and the scaly
surface of a pine-cone, entirely different qualities
of line are obviously wanted. The firm-set yet
soft feathers of the plumage of a bird must be
rendered by a very different touch from the shining
scales of a fish. The hair and horns of animals,
delicate human features, flowers, the sinuous lines
of thin drapery, or the broad massive folds of
heavy robes, all demand from the designer and
draughtsman in line different kinds of suggestive
expression, a translation or rendering of natural
fact subordinate to the artistic purpose of his work,
and in relation to the material and purpose for
which he works.
Then, again, when we come to the expression
of ideas — of thought and sentiment — we find in
line an abstract but direct medium for their illus-
tration ; and this again, too, by means of that law of
inseparable association which connects the idea of
praise or aspiration and ascension, for instance,
with long lines inclining towards the severe vert-
ical, as when we draw a figure with upraised
hands; while the feeling might be increased if led up
to or re-echoed by other groups and objects in the
18
LINEAR EXPRESSION OF EMOTION
composition, forming a kind of vertical crescendo
on the same principle which we were consider-
LINES OF DIFFERENT TEXTURES, STRUCTURES, AND SURFACES.
ing in regard to the expression of lateral movement.
Few things in design are finer or more elevated in
feeling than William Blake's design of the Morn-
ing Stars singing together, in the series of the Book
19
LINEAR EXPRESSION OF EMOTION
of Job, yet it is little more than a vertical arrange-
ment of figures with uplifted and intercrossing
EXPRESSION OF EMOTION : LINES OF EXALTATION AND REJOIC-
ING IN UNISON. THE MORNING STARS, AFTER WILLIAM
BLAKE. (FROM THE BOOK OF JOB.)
arms. The linear plan gives the main impetus to
the expressiveness of the design, and is the basis
20
SCALE OF LINEAR EXPRESSION
of the beauty, which culminates in the rapture of
the fresh youthful faces.
Bowed and bent lines tending downwards, on
the other hand, convey the opposite ideas of de-
jection and despair. This is illustrated in these
figures of Flaxman's, who was a great master of
style in outline.
We seem here to discover a kind of scale of
linear expression — the two extremes at either
LINES OF GRIEF AND DEJECTION. FLAX M AN : DtSIGNS TO
HOMER.
end : the horizontal and the vertical, with every
degree and modulation between them ; the undu-
lating curve giving way to the springing energetic
spiral, the meandering, flowing line sinking to the
horizontal : or the sharp opposition and thrust
of rectangular, the nervous resistance of broken
curves, the flame-like, triumphant, ascending ver-
ticals. Truly the designer may find a great range
of expression within the dominion of pure line.
Line is, indeed, as I have before termed it, a
21
CAPACITY OF LINE
language, a most sensitive and vigorous speech
of many dialects ; which can adapt itself to all
purposes, and is, indeed, indispensable to all the
provinces of design in line. Line may be regarded
simply as a means of record, a method of register-
ing the facts of nature, of graphically portraying
the characteristics of plants and animals, or the
features of humanity : the smooth features of
youth, the rugged lines of age. It is capable of
this, and more also, since it can appeal to our
emotions and evoke our passionate and poetic
sympathies with both the life of humanity and
wild nature, as in the hands of the great masters
it lifts us to the heavens or bows us down to
earth : we may stand on the sea-shore and see the
movement of the falling waves, the fierce energy
of the storm and its rolling armament of clouds,
glittering with the sudden zigzag of the lightning ;
or we may sink into the profound calm of a sum-
mer day, when the mountains, defined only by
their edges, wrapped in soft planes of mist, seem
to recline upon the level meadows like Titans and
dream of the golden age.
22
CHAPTER II
The Language of Line — Dialects — Comparison of the Style
of various Artists in Line — Scale of Degrees in Line — Picture
Writing — Relation of Line to Form — Two Paths — The Graphic
Purpose— Aspect — The Ornamental Purpose — Typical Treat-
ment or Convention — Rhythm — Linear Plans in Pattern De-
signing— Wall-paper Design — Controlling Forms — Memory —
Evolution in Design — Variety in Unity — Counterbalance —
Linear Logic — Recurring Line and Form — Principle of Radia-
tion— Range and Use of Line.
I SPOKE of Line as a Language, and gave some
illustrations of its power and range of expres-
sion, showing that line is capable not only of
recording natural fact and defining character, but
also of conveying the idea of movement and force,
of action and repose ; and, further, of appealing
to our emotions and thoughts by variations and
changes in its direction, the degree of its emphasis,
and other qualities.
Yet every designer and draughtsman uses line
in a different way, and of a different quality, ac-
cording to his preference, habit, training, or person-
ality. The endless variations which result I should
—to pursue the analogy of speech further — term
dialect^. We might collect abundant examples
of these from the work of line-designers since the
world began, or compare the methods of any of
the popular illustrators of to-day to find constant
23
DIALECTS
variations and individual differences occurring
even among those which might be said, under the
influence of a prevailing mode, to be variations of
one type.
Compare a Greek vase-painter's delicate brush
line-drawing with the bold pen-line of Albert
Dlirer (to get a contrast in historic style). Com-
pare (to take two masters of different schools, but
of the same country) the line-treatment of Man-
tegna with the line-treatment of Raphael ; or, to
take another jump, compare the line-work of Blake
and Flaxman ; or, to take a modern instance, and
to come to our own contemporary artists, com-
pare a drawing by Burne-Jones and one by Phil
May.
We might construct a sort of scale of the degrees
and qualities of line.
There is, for instance, outline of every degree
of boldness or fineness, from the strong black half-
inch outline and upwards used in mosaic-work
and stained-glass leading ; the outline of the
pattern designer for block-printing ; the outline
of the pen draughtsman for process-work or wood-
cut ; and so on, down to the hair-line of the dry-
point etcher.
There are the qualities of line in different
degrees of firmness, roughness, raggedness, or
smooth and flowing. There are the degrees of
direction of line, curvilinear or angular. On the
angular side all variations from the perpendicular
and horizontal, or rectangle, within which we may
find all these degrees, and on the curvilinear side,
all the variations from spiral to circle : so that we
might say that the rectangle was the cradle of all
24
SCALE OF DEGREES IN LINE
angular variations of line, while the semicircle was
the cradle of all curvilinear variations. (See the
diagrams on p. 26.)
PCH
U
line
j_»nch.
2.
ron
SCALE OF VARIOUS DEGREES OF LINEAR WEIGHT AND EMPHASIS.
Every artist, sooner or later, by means of his
selective adaptive sense, finds a method in the
25
SCALE OF DEGREES IN LINE
use of line to suit his own personality — to suit his
own individual aim in artistic expression — and in
course of time it becomes a characteristic manner,
CURVILINEAR AND RECTANGULAR SCALES OF DIRECTION.
by which his work is instantly known, like a friend's
handwriting.
Now what determines this choice, this personal
selection, over and above necessities of method
and material, it would be difficult to say, unless
26
RELATION OF LINE TO FORM
we had more minute knowledge of the natural
history of a human being than we are likely to
possess. We can only say that from practice are
evolved certain methods or principles, consciously
or unconsciously ; and it is only these general
methods or principles that can be ex-plained and
tested for the benefit of those essaying to follow
the arduous and difficult path of art.
At the outset we see that we need a means of
definition in drawing, just as a child needs a word
to express a thing it wants. Line, at the point of
the pencil, pen, or brush, places this possibility of
definition within our reach ; but before we can
grasp it we need some knowledge, however rudi-
mentary, of its inseparable companion, Form.
I recall two innocent and entertaining methods
from the traditions of the nursery, which appeal at
once in a curious way to both the oral and graphic
senses, and unite story and picture in one. These
are illustrated on p. 28. By such devices a child
learns to associate line and form, unconsciously
and step by step defining form in the use of, or
pursuit of, line.
It would be very entertaining and agreeable if
we could carry the principle further, and get a
passable study from the antique, for instance, by
a similar process. In line-drawing we may, how-
ever, always tell some story or fact, or character,
phase, or idea.
But supposing we have mounted our steed Form,
and taken our bridle Line in hand, and have
started riding at large in the vast domain of nature,
with the primary object of finding and hunting
down truth at last ; we soon perceive that there
27
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of A.tv<Jc\3fYHtt\t bei*£ «K^icate^
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STOFTf I
CHARLES
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STORY II
THE LITTLE A
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E.VTATC
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THE GRAPHIC PURPOSE
are so many truths, or rather that truth, even of
natural fact, has so many sides, that it is difficult to
make up our mind which one to pursue. Thought,
however, will soon discover that in this pursuit of
truth we strike a road that naturally divides itself,
or branches out, into two main paths distinct in
aim. These two paths in art have been called by
many names ; they occasionally cross each other,
or overlap, and are sometimes blended, or even
confused ; but it will be use ul for our present pur-
pose to keep them very distinct. I will term them,
for convenience :
1. The Graphic Purpose. (Accidental form.)
2. The Ornamental Purpose. (Typical form.)
Our use of line will largely depend upon which
of these two it is our object to pursue. Now when
we look at anything with intent to draw — say a
leafy bough as it grows in the sunshine — we see
great complexity of form and surface-lighting.
The leaves, perhaps, take all manner of varia-
tions of the typical form, and are set at all sorts
of angles. In making a rapid sketch with the
object of getting the appearance of the bough, we
naturally dwrell upon these accidents and super-
ficial facts. At the same time, with nothing but
line to express them, we are compelled to use-a
kind oL-Coav_ejition, though our aim be purely
naturalistic, to get a faithful portrait of the
bough.
We must make our line as descriptive as possible,
defining the main forms boldly, and blocking in
broadly the main masses of form and light and
shade. We are now aiming at the general look
of the thing. We are striving to grasp the facts
29
THE GRAPHIC PURPOSE
OLIVE BRANCH
FROM MATURE
of Aspect. We are concerned with the purely
graphic purpose, to make a picture upon paper.
We cannot, however, even under these simple
30
THE GRAPHIC PURPOSE
conditions, altogether leave out of account con-
siderations which, strictly speaking, must be
termed " decorative." For instance, there is the
question of placing the study well upon the paper,
a very important point to start with ; and then the
question of beauty must arise, not only in the
selection of our point of view, but in the choice of
method, in the treatment of line we adopt; and it
does not follow that the most apparently forcible
way of getting bold projection by means of black
shadows, at the cost of the more delicate char-
acteristics of our subject, is the best. On the
contrary, the finest draughtsmanship is always
the most subtle and delicate, and one cannot get
subtle and delicate draughtsmanship without faith-
ful study and careful constant practice — knowledge
of form, in short — and I am afraid there is no
short cut to it.
Now supposing we make our study of leaves,
not as an end in itself, and for its simple pictorial
values or qualities only, but with an ornamental
or decorative purpose in view, intending to make
use of its form and character in some more or less
systematic design or pattern-work — adapted to
special methods and materials — intended to deco-
rate a wall-surface or a textile, for instance ; we
might certainly start with a general sketch of its
appearance as before, but we should find that we
should want to understand it in its detail ; the law
of its growth and construction ; we should want
to dwell upon its typical character and form, the
controlling lines of its masses, rather than on its
accidental aspects, because it would really be
only with these that we could successfully deal in
THE ORNAMENTAL PURPOSE
adapting anything in nature to the conditions and
limitations of a design. To do this requires as
OLIVE. BRANCH
IN DECOR
TRE.ATAEMT
much art as to make a clever graphic sketch,
perhaps more ; but it is certainly not so easily
32
THE ORNAMENTAL PURPOSE
understood and appreciated, as a rule. Pattern-
work is taken so much for granted, except by
STUDY OF- MORME.D POPPY
those technically interested, whereas a graphic
sketch may bring the drama of nature, and of
33 D
ADAPTATION OF THE HORNED POPPY IN DESIGN
VERTICAL PANEL FOR NEEDLEWORK.
34
QUESTION AND ANSWER IN LINE
human character and incident, before our eyes.
It does not require us to stop and think out the
less obvious meaning, or trace -the invention or
grace of line, to appreciate the rhythmic, silent
music which the more formalized and abstract
decorative design may contain, quite apart from
the forms it actually represents.
Here we discover another function of line. For,
directly we endeavour to construct a decorative
design — that is, a design intended to a'dorn or to
express an object or surface — we find that we must
build it upon some sort of a plan, or geometric
controlling network or scaffolding, so as to give it
unity, rhythm, and coherence — especially so in the
case of repeating designs. Even in an isolated
panel or picture the necessity of this linear basis
will be felt, since one cannot draw a line or define
a form without demanding an answer — that is, a
corresponding, re-echoing line or mass.
The curve (i. Q) is a proposition or question.
It is answered or balanced by the corresponding
curve (2. A), and forms the basis for a scroll
design.
The five radiating lines (i) are obviously in-
complete by themselves, but if we add another
35
WALL-PAPER DESIGN
four, in reverse order, (2) we get a centred and
symmetric motive of an anthemion character.
Take, however, a wall-paper. The problem is
to construct a design pleasant to the eye in line,
form, colour, and suggestion ; which will be in-
teresting in detail, and yet repeat upon a wall-
surface without flaw, and without becoming weari-
some. Moreover, one which will lend itself to
being cut upon wood, if for block-printing, and
which may be reproduced with a due regard to
economy of means. The designer may have a
square of twenty- one inches in which to make his
design.
A useful way to begin with is to rule out a sheet
of paper into squares, say on the scale, of i^ inch
to the foot, and upon this jot down your first ideas
of linear arrangement and colour motive, and get
36
WALL-PAPER DESIGN
the general, effect, and test the plan of repeats.
When you are satisfied with one, enlarge it to full
size, correct and amplify it, and improve it in form
and detail. Changes will probably be found neces-
DIAGRAM SHOWING THE USE OF A GEOMETRIC BASIS IN
DESIGNING REPEATING PATTERN.
sary in drawing it upon the larger scale, sometimes
additions, sometimes omissions. Now in sketch-
ing out the general plan, one builds, as before said,
upon some basis or plan, however simple, since
one cannot put a simple spot, sprig, or spray upon
37
CONTROLLING FORMS
paper intending to repeat, without some system of
connection to put them into relation.
In designing one's sprig, too, the best plan to
secure good decorative effect is to see that its
general form is inclosed or bounded by an agree-
able linear shape, although itself not actually
visible. Simple leaf and flower forms are gener-
ally the best to use for these controlling boundaries.
Sprays designed on this principle may be relied
upon for repeating pleasantly and safely when
they are placed upon, and connected by, the con-
trolling geometric plan. A good practical test of
the truth and completeness of your square repeat
is, when the design is done, or even in progress,
to cut it into four equal parts (supposing it to be a
twenty-one inch square). This will enable you
to get the joints true, and also, by altering the
position of the squares, to give you a very good
idea of the effect of the repeat full size. (See the
diagrams on p. 41.)
These things must be considered, of course,
merely as practical aids to invention : not by any
means as substitutes for it. One cannot give any
recipe for designing, and no rules, principles, or
methods can supply the place of imagination and
fancy. " He who would bring back health from
the Indies," says an old proverb, " must take it out
with him."
At the same time the imagination can be en-
feebled by starvation and neglect. It can be
depressed by dull and sordid surroundings. It
is apt to grow, like other living things, by what
it feeds on, and is stronger for exercise and de-
velopment.
38
MEMORY
Memory, too, is an important and serviceable
thing in designing, and this, again, can be culti-
vated to an almost unlimited extent. I mean that
selective kind of memory which, by constant and
close observation, extracts and stores up the essen-
tial serviceable kind of facts for the designer :
USE OF CONTROLLING BOUNDARIES IN DESIGNING SPRAYS
facts of form, of structure, of movement of figures,
expressive lines, momentary or transitory effects
of colour — all those rare and precious visual
moments which will not wait, and which happen
unexpectedly. They should be captured like rare
butterflies and carefully stored in the mind's
museum of suggestions, as well as, as far as is
39
EVOLUTION IN DESIGN
possible, pinned down in the hieroglyphics of the
note-book.
As regards procedure in working out a design,
one generally thinks of some leading feature, some
central mass or form or curve — of a figure or
a flower, say — and one thinks of its capacity in
repeat ; and, since one form or line should in-
evitably suggest or necessitate — as by a kind of
logic — another, one adds other forms until the de-
sign is complete. For it must never be forgotten
that design is a growth which has its own stages
of evolution in the mind, answering to the evolu-
tion of the living forms of nature — first the blade,
then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.
Experience teaches us that the most harmonious
arrangements of form and line are those in which
the leading lines and forms through all sorts of
variations, continually recur, We cannot place a
number of sliarply contrasting and contradictory
forms together in design satisfactorily — at least
we cannot do so without recourse to other elements
to harmonize and to bring them into relation. For
instance, we might get a gieat deal of ornamental
variety by means of a number of heraldic devices
upon shields, full in themselves of quaintness and
contrasts, butbroughtintoharmony by the boundary
lines of the shields and the divisions ; or, still
further, by throwing them upon a background of
leaves and stems, the meandering lines and recur-
ring forms of which would answer as a kind of
warp upon which to weave the heraldic spots into
a connected and harmonious pattern.
But even in the ornamental treatment of diverse
forms, as the mediaeval heraldic designers were
40
_ J
METHOD OF TESTING A REPEATING PATTERN.
41
VARIETY IN UNITY
well aware, they can be brought into decorative
harmony by following a similar principle to the one
already laid down in regard to the designing of
sprigs and sprays : that is to say, that in designing
S&fi&Kaf*
SKETCH TO SHOW HOW A PATTERN OF DIVERSE ELEMENTS
MAY BE HARMONIZED BY UNITY OF INCLOSING AND IN-
TERMEDIARY LINES.
an animal or figure for heraldry or introduction
into a pattern, one should arrange it so that it
should fall within the boundary of some geometric
or foliated form, square, circular, elliptical or other-
42
COUNTERBALANCE
THE PRINCIPLE
OF COUNTER '
BALANCF IN
DIFFERENT srs<
DIAGONAL
ALTERNATE
DIAGONAL
MOR.\ZONTAU
wise, as might be desirable. To this, however, I
hope to return in a future chapter.
We may here consider another important prin-
43
COUNTERBALANCE
ciple in designing with line and mass, that of
counterbalance.
Take any defined space as a panel, tile, or border
to be filled with design : you place your principal
mass, and instantly feel that it must be balanced
by a corresponding mass, or some equivalent.
Its place will be determined by the principle upon
which the design is built. If on a symmetrical
arrangement, you find your centre (say of a panel),
and you may either throw the chief weight and
mass of the design upon the central feature (as a
tree), and balance it by smaller forms or wings
each side, or vice versa; or, adopting a diagonal
plan, you place your principal mass (say it is a tile)
near the top left-hand corner (suppose it is a pome-
granate), connecting it with a spiral diagonal line
(the stem) ; the place of the counterbalancing mass
(the second pomegranate) is obviously near the
bottom right-hand corner of the square. You may
then feel the necessity for additional smaller forms,
and so add to it (the leaves), completing the de-
sign. (See preceding page.)
On the same principle one may design upon
various other plans. The exact choice of the dis-
tribution of the counterbalancing masses must
always be a matter of personal feeling, judgment,
and taste, controlled by the perception of certain
logical necessities : as it seems to me that design-
ing is a species of linear reasoning,1 and might
almost be worked in its elementary stages on the
principle of the syllogism, consisting of two pro-
positions and a conclusion. A spiral curve is a
1 I recall here a saying of Sir E. Burne-Jones, that " a bad
line can only be answered by a good line."
44
LINEAR LOGIC
harmonious line, says the designer : repeat it,
reversed, and you prolong the harmony ; repeat it
again, with variations, and you complete the
harmony. Or, harmonious effect is produced by
recurring form and line. Here is a circular form ;
here is a meandering line : combine and repeat
them, and you get a logical and harmonious border
motive.
O
BORDER UNITS AND BORDER MOTIVE.
The everlastingly recurring egg and dart mould-
ing and the volute are instances of the harmonious
effect of very simple arrangements of recurring
line and form. We also get illustrated in these
another linear quality in design— that up-and-down
movement which gives a pleasant rhythm to the
45
RECURRING LINE AND FORM
simplest border, and is of especial consequence in
all repeating border and frieze designs. The
borders of early, ancient, and classical art might
be said to be little besides rhythmical and logical
arrangements of line. The same rhythmical prin-
ciple is found in the designs of the classical frieze
in all its varieties, culminating in the rhythmic
movement of the great Pan-Athenaic procession
in that master-frieze of the Parthenon, which,
RECURRING LINE AND FORM IN BORDER MOTIVES.
though full of infinite variety and delicate sculp-
tured detail, is yet controlled by a strictly orna-
mental motive, and constructed upon the rhythmic
recurrence of pure line.
Another great linear principle in design is what
is known as the radiating principle, which gives
vitality and vigour alike to both arrangements of
line and delineations of form. It is emphatically
and abundantly illustrated in natural forms, from
the scallop shell upon the sea-shore to the sun
46
THE PRINCIPLE OF RADIATION
himself that radiates his light upon it. The palm-
leaf in all its graceful varieties demonstrates its
beauty, its constructive strength combined with
extraordinary lightness, which becomes domesti-
cated in that fragile sceptre of social influence and
festivity, the fan, and which again spreads its
silken, or gossamer, wing as a suggestive field for
the designer. We find the principle springing to
life again in the fountain jet, and symbolical of
life as it has ever been ; by means of the same
principle applied to construction the Gothic archi-
tects raised their beautiful vaults, and emphasized
the structural principle and the beauty of recur-
ring line by moulding the edges of their ribs ;
while we have but to look at the structure of the
human frame to find the same principle there also,
in the fibres of the muscles, for instance, the radia-
tion of the ribs, and of the fingers and toes.
In truth, as I have said, if there can be said to
be one principle more than another, the perception
and expression of which gives to an artist's work
in design peculiar vitality, it is this principle of
radiating line. One may follow it through all
stages and forms of drawing and design, and it
is equally important in the design of the figure, in
the structure of a flower, in the folds of drapery,
and alike in the controlling lines of pictorial compo-
sition and decorative plan, whether the lines radiate
from seen or from hidden centres, which in all
kinds of informal design are perhaps the most
important.
We see, therefore, that line possesses a con-
structive and controlling function, in addition to
its power of graphic expression and decorative
47
RANGE AND USE OF LINE
definition. It is the beginning and the end of
art. By means of its help \ve guide our first
tottering steps in the wide world of design ; and,
as we gain facility of hand and travel further afield,
we discover that we have a key to unlock the
RANGE AND USE OF LINE
wonders of art and nature, a method of conjuring
up all forms at will : a sensitive language capable
of recording and revealing impressions and beau-
ties of form and structure hidden from the careless
a delicate instrument which may catch and
49 E
eye
RANGE AND USE OF LINE
perpetuate in imperishable notation unheard har-
monies : a staff to lean upon through the journey
of life : a candid friend who never deceives us :
perchance a divining rod, which may ultimately
reveal to us that Beauty and Truth are one— as
they certainly are, or ought to be, in the world
of art.
RADIATING LINE IN ARCHITECTURAL CONSTRUCTION I VAULTING
OF CHAPTER HOUSE, WESTMINSTER.
CHAPTER III
Of the Choice and Use of Line — Degree and Emphasis —
Influence of the Photograph — The Value of Emphasis — The
Technical Influence — The Artistic Purpose — Influence of
Material and Tools— Brush-work — Charcoal — Pencil — Pen.
RECOGN IZ I NG the great range and capacity
of line as a means of expression, and also the
range of choice it presents to the designer and
draughtsman, the actual exercise of this choice of
line, with a view to the most expressive and
effective use in practice, becomes, of course, of
the first consequence.
In this matter of choice we are helped by natural
bias, by personal character and preferences, for
which it would, as I have said, be difficult fully to
account; but beyond this a kind of evolution goes
on, arising out of actual practice, which controls
and is controlled by it. Draw simply a succession
of strokes with any point upon paper, and we find
that we are gradually led to repeat a particular
kind of stroke, a particular degree of line, partly
perhaps because it seems to be produced with
more ease, and partly because it appears to have
the pleasantest effect.
By a kind of " natural selection," therefore, in-
fluenced no doubt by many small secondary causes,
such as the relation of the particular angle of the
51
CHOICE OF LINE
LINES OF CHARACTERIZATION.
hand and pencil-point to the surface — the nature
of the point itself and the nature of the surface —
we finally arrive at a choice of line. This choice,
52
USE OF LINE
again, will be liable to constant variation, owing
to the nature of the object we are about to draw,
or the kind of design we want to make.
The kind of line which seems appropriate to
representing the delicate edges of a piece of low-
relief sculpture, for instance, would require greater
force and firmness if we wanted to draw an antique
cast in the round, and in strong light and shade.
The character of our line should be sympathetic
with the character of our subject as far as possible,
and sensitive to its differences of character and
surface, since it is in this sensitiveness that the
expressive power and peculiar virtue of line-draw-
ing consists.
A feather, a lily, a scallop shell, all show as an
essential principle of their form and construction
the radiating line ; but what a different quality of
line would be necessary to express the differences of
each : for the soft, yet firm, smooth flowing curves
of the feather fibres no line would be too delicate ;
and the lily would demand no less delicacy, and
even greater precision and firmness of curve, while
a slight waviness, or quiver, in the lines might
express the silken or waxy surface of the petals;
while a crustier, more rugged, though equally firm
line would be wanted to follow the rigid furrows
and serrated surface of the shell. The leaves 01
trees and plants of all kinds, which perhaps afford
the best sort of practice in line-drawing at first,
present in their varieties of structure, character,
and surfaces continual opportunities for the exer-
cise of artistic judgment in the choice and use
of line.
The forms and surfaces of fruits, again, are ex-
53
USE OF LINE
cellent tests of line draughtsmanship, and their
study is a good preparation for the more subtle
and delicate contours of the human form — the
greatest test of all. Here we see firmness of
fundamental structure (in the bones) and surface
curve (of sinew and muscle), with a mobile and
constantly changing surface (of flesh and sensitive
skin). To render such characteristics without
tending to overdo either the firmness or the mo-
PEN DRAWING OF FRUIT.
bility, and so to become too rigid on the one hand,
or too loose and indefinite on the other, requires
extraordinary skill, knowledge, and practice in
the use of line. I do not suppose the greatest
master ever satisfied himself yet in this direc-
tion.
When we have settled upon our quality of line
and its degree — thick or thin, bold or fine — we shall
be met with the question of emphasis, for upon
this the ultimate effect and expression of our
54
DEGREE AND EMPHASIS
drawing or design must largely depend. In the
selection of any subject we should naturally be
influenced by the attractiveness of particular parts,
characters, or qualities it might possess, and we
should direct our efforts towards bringing these
out, as the things which impress us most. That
is the difference between the mind and hand work-
ing together harmoniously and the sensitized plate
in the photographic camera, which, uncontrolled
in any way by human choice (and even under
that control as it always is to some extent), me-
chanically registers the action of the light rays
which define the impress of natural forms and
scenes through the lens focussed upon the plate.
So that, as we often see in a photograph, some
unimportant or insignificant detail is reproduced
with as much distinctness (or more) as are the
leading figures or whatever form the interesting
features or the motive of the subject. The picture
suffers from want^of emphasis, or from emphasis
in^thg'wfoiigf place. It is, of course, here that the
artToTthe photographer comes in ; and, although
he can by careful selection, arrangement, and the
regulation of exposure, largely counteract the
mechanical tendency, a ph
nature can ngyerjtake the^place of a work oLart=r
the first-hand expression, more or less abstract, of
a human mind, or the creative inner vision recorded
by a human hand.
Photography does wonders, and for certain
qualities of light and shade, and form and effect
without colour, no painting or drawing can ap-
proach it ; but it has the_ value and interesfc-ef
science rather than of 'art. It is invaluable to the
55
INFLUENCE OF THE PHOTOGRAPH
student of natural fact, surface effect, and momen-
tary action, and is often in its very failures most
interesting and suggestive to artists — who indeed
have not been slow to avail themselves of the help
of photography in all sorts of ways. Indeed the
wonder is, considering its services to art in all
directions, how the world could ever have done
without it.
But a photograph cannot do everything. It
cannot make original designs, and it cannot draw
in line. You can design in the solid, and make
your groups in the studio or the open air ; you can
select your point of view, and the photograph will
reproduce. You can make your drawing in line,
and it will copy it ; and we know its sphere of
usefulness in this direction is enormous, since it
can bring before our eyes the whole range of
ancient art.
In short, photography is an excellent servant
and friend, but a dangerous master. It may easily
beguile us by its seductive reproductions of surface
relief and lighting to think more of these qualities
than any other, and to endeavour to put them in
the wrong places — in places where we want colour
planes rather than shadow planes, flatness and
repose rather than relief for instance, as mostly
in surface decoration.
But one way of learning the value of emphasis
is to draw from a photograph, and it will soon be
discovered what a difference in expression is pro-
duced by dwelling a little more here, or a little
less there.
In designing, the use of emphasis is very im-
portant ; and it may be sai'd that drawing or de-
56
THE VALUE OF EMPHASIS
signing without emphasis is like reading without
stops, while awkward emphasis is like putting your
stops in the wrong place.
By a difference in emphasis the same design
may be given quite a different effect and expres-
sion.
Suppose, for instance, we were designing a ver-
tical pattern of stem, leaves, and fruit in one colour.
EFFECT OF DIFFERENT EMPHASIS IN THE TREATMENT OF
THE SAME DESIGN.
By throwing the emphasis upon the leaves, as in
No. i, we should gain one kind of effect or decor-
ative expression. By throwing the emphasis upon
the fruit, and leaving the leaves in outline, we
should get quite a different effect out of the same
elements, as in No. 2. While by leaving stem,
leaves, and fruit all in outline, and throwing the
emphasis upon the ground, we should get, again,
a totally distinct kind of effect and expression.
Similar differences of effect and expression,
57
THE VALUE OF EMPHASIS
owing to differences of emphasis, might be studied
in the drawing and treatment of a head (as in A, B,
and c). The possibilities of such variations of
emphasis in drawing are practically unlimited and
co-extensive with the variations of expression we
see in nature herself. The pictorial artist is free
to translate or represent them in his work, con-
trolled solely by the conditions and purpose of
his work.
It is these conditions and purposes which really
control both choice and treatment, and determine
DIFFERENT EMPHASIS IN THE TREATMENT OF A HEAD.
the emphasis, and therefore the expression of the
work.
No kind of art can be said to be unconditioned,
and the simplest and freest of all, the art of the
point and the surface^ which covers all the graphic
art and flat designing, is still subject to certain
technical influences, and it may be said that it is
very much in so far as these technical influences
or conditions are acknowledged and utilized that
the work gains in artistic character.
The draughtsman in line who draws for surface
printing, for the book or newspaper, should be able
to stand the test of the peculiar conditions ; and, so
58
THE TECHNICAL INFLUENCE
far from attempting to escape them, and seeking
something more than they will bear, should welcome
them as incentives to a distinct artistic treatment
with a value and character of its own, which indeed
SKETCHES TO ILLUSTRATE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT EMPHASIS IN
THE TREATMENT OF THE SAME ELEMENTS IN LANDSCAPE.
all the best work has. It is, for instance, import-
ant in all design associated with type for surface
printing, that there should be a certain harmonious
relation between lettering or type and printer's
ornament or picture.
59
HE
WHO -\KJRKS-SR;
BOOK- OR- THE
, 5houM It able to fond.
the test* of the peculiar condition^
ani,So far from 5eekufc£ to escape
Ha^m and attempt ^omc%iW bej/ona
their limite, Vie ^houldl ratfci^ Welcome
tfajsm a* incetih'vcs 1b ^ dj5tin<if artfc
t?C fr^ahncn^ with, a value and char-
acter of ito own. ^^•fc^'fc.usrx^
WE sKoulcl 3eck ac certnin li
=€8^ elation. l>etvt^en ike om
or picture and ths letter^
OT type with -which
printed. . J^T v .-cr TSL jzr
EXAMPLE OF PAGE TREATMENT TO SHOW ORNAMENTAL
RELATION BETWEEN TEXT AND PICTURES.
60
*rt* "id. ' ig*J'«
I. TEXTILE MOTIVE : SUGGESTION FOR A CARPET PATTERN.
II. AN ABSTRACT TREATMENT OF THE SAME ON POINT PAPER,
AS DETAIL OF BRUSSELS CARPET.
6l
THE TECHNICAL INFLUENCE
A firm and open quality of line, with bright black
and white effects, not only has the most attractive
decorative effect with type, but lends itself to the
processes of reproduction for surface printing best,
whether woodcut or one of the numerous forms of
so-called automatic photo-engraving, as well as to
the conditions of the printing press.
In all design-work which has to be subjected to
processes of engraving and printing, clearness and
definiteness of line is very necessary. Designs for
textile printing of all kinds, for wall-papers, especi-
ally, require good firm drawing and definite colour
planes. This does not, however, mean hardness
of effect. A design should be clear and intelligible
without being hard.
For weaving, again, definiteness in pattern de-
signing is very necessary, since the design must be
capable of being rendered upon the severe condi-
tions of the point paper, by which it is only possible
to produce curves by small successive angles (which
sounds like a contradiction in terms). The size of
these angles or points, of course, varies very much
in the different kinds of textile with which pattern
is incorporated, from the fine silk fabric, in which
they are almost inappreciable, to carpets of all kinds,
where they are emphatic ; so that a certain square-
ness of mass becomes a desirable and character-
istic feature in designs for these purposes, and,
indeed, I think it should be more or less acknow-
ledged in all textile design, in order to preserve its
distinctive beauty and character.
Beauty and character. — In these lies the gist of
all design. While the technical conditions, if fully
understood, fairly met, and frankly acknowledged,
62
THE ARTISTIC PURPOSE
are sure to give character to a design, for whatever
purpose, beauty is not so easy .to command. It is
so delicate a quality, so complex in its elements, a
question often of such nice balance and judgment
—depending perhaps upon a hair's-breadth differ-
ence in the poise of a mass here, or the sweep of a
curve there — that we cannot weave technical nets
fine enough to catch so sensitive a butterfly. She
is indeed a Psyche in art, both seeking and sought,
to be finally won only by devotion and love.
This search for beauty — this Psyche of art — is
the purely inspiring artistic purpose, as distinct
from the technical and useful one, which should,
perfectly reconciled and united with it, determine
the form of our work.
In drawing or design we may seek particular
qualities in line and form either of representation
or of ornament. We may desire to dwell upon
particular beauties either of object or subject. Say,
in drawing from a cast or from natural form of any
kind, we desire to dwell upon beauty of line or
^ quality of surface. Well, since it is most difficult,
if not impossible, to get everything at once, and
nothing without some kind of sacrifice, we shall
find that to give prominence to— to bring out — the
particular quality in our subject (say beauty of line),
it becomes necessary to subordinate other qualities
to this. A drawing in pure outline of a figure may
be a perfect thing in itself. The moment we begin
to superadd shading, or lines expressive of relief
of any kind, we introduce another element ; we are
aiming at another kind of truth or beauty ; and un-
less we have also a distinctly ideal aim in this, we
shall mar the simplicity of the outline without gain-
THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL
ing any compensating advantage, or really adding
to the truth or beauty of the drawing.
In designing, too, unless we can so contrive the
essential characteristics of our pattern that they
shall be adaptable to the method and material of its
production, and make its reproduction quite prac-
ticable, it is sure to reappear more or less marred
and incomplete. The thing is to discover what
kind, of character and beauty the method will allow
of— whether beauty or quality of line, or surface,
or colour, or material ; and if to be reproduced in
a particular method or material, the design should
be thought out in the method or material for which
it is destined, rather than as a drawing on paper,
and worked out accordingly, using every oppor-
tunity to secure the particular kind of beauty natur-
ally belonging to such work in its completed form.
Thus we should naturally think of planes of sur-
face in modelled work, and the delicate play of
light and shade, getting our equivalent for colour
in the design and contrast of varied surfaces. In
stained glass we should think of a pattern in lead
lines inclosing one of translucent colour, each being
interdependent and united to form a harmonious
whole. In textile design we should be influenced
by the thought of the difference of use, plan, and
purpose of the finished material ; as the difference
between a rich vertical pattern in silk, velvet, or
tapestry, to be broken by folds as in curtains or
hangings, and a rich carpet pattern, to be spread
upon the unbroken level surface of a floor. The
idea of the wall and floor should here influence us
as well as the actual technical necessities of the
loom. It would be part of the artistic purpose
64
BRUSH-WORK
affecting the imagination and artistic motive, and
working with the strictly technical conditions.
The mind must project itself, and see with the
inner eye the effect of the design as it would ap-
pear in actual use, as far as possible. Invention,
knowledge, and experience will do the rest.
Keeping, however, to strictly pictorial or graphic
conditions — to the art of the point and the surface
—with which, as designers and draughtsmen, we
are more immediately concerned, we cannot forget
certain technical considerations strictly belonging
to the varieties of point and of surface, and their
relations one to another. The flexible point of the
brush, for instance, dipped in ink, or colour, has its
own peculiar capacity, its own range of treatment,
one might say, its own forms.
The management admits of immense variation
of use and touch, and its range of depicting and
ornamental power are very great : from the sim-
pler leaf forms, which seem to be almost a reflection
or shadow of the moist pointed brush itself, to the
elaborate graphic drawing in line or light and
shade.
In forming the leaf shape one begins with a light
pressure, if at the point, and proceeds to increase
it for the middle and broader end. On the same
principle of regulation of pressure any brush forms
may be built up. It is essential for freedom in work-
ing with the brush not to starve or stint it in moist-
ure or colour. For ornamental forms a full brush
should be used : otherwise they are apt to look
dragged and meagre. For a rich and flowing line
also a full brush, however fine, is necessary. It is
quite possible, however, to use it with a different
65 F
BRUSH-WORK
I
I//'""
BRUSH FORMS.
aim, and to produce a sort of crumbling line when
half dry, and also in colour-work for what is called
dragging, by which tone, texture, or quality may
66
BRUSH-WORK
be given to parts of a drawing. One should never
lose sight, in using the brush as a drawing tool, of
\ -
DIRECT BRUSH
EXPRESSION OF
its distinctive quality and character, and impart it
to all work done by its means.
BRUSH-WORK
The direct touch with the full brush — to culti-
vate this is of enormous advantage to all artists,
whatever particular line of art they may follow,
since it may be said to be of no less value in design
than it is in painting pure and simple. We can all
feel the charm of the broad brush washes and em-
phatic brush touches of a master of water-colour
landscape such as De Wint. This is mastery of
brush and colour in one direction — tone and effect.
A Japanese drawing of a bird or a fish may show
it equally in another — character and form. A bit
of Oriental porcelain or Persian tile may show the
same dexterous charm and full-brush feeling exer-
cised in a strictly decorative direction.
The empire of the brush, if we think of it in all
its various forms and directions, is very large ; and
it commands, in skilled hands, both iineandform,
in all their varieties, and leaves its impress in all
the departments of art, from the humble but dex-
terous craftsman who puts the line of gold or colour
round the edges of our cups and saucers, to
the highly skilled and specialized painter of easel
pictures — say the academician who writes cheques
with his paint-brush !
Then we have the ordinary varieties of the firm
point: charcoal, pencil, pen. Charcoal, being half-
way between hard and soft — a sort of halfway
house or bridge for one passing from the flexible
brush to the firm and hard points of pencil and
pen — is first favourite with painters when they
take to drawing. Its softness and removability
adapts it as a tool for preliminary and preparatory
sketching in for all purposes, and both for designer
and painter ; but it lends itself to both line and
68
JAPANESE DRAWING OF A BIRD. FROM "THE HUNDRED
BIRDS OF BARI."
69
CHARCOAL AND PENCIL
tone drawing, or to a mixture of both. It is there-
fore a very good material for rapid studies (say
from the life) and the seizing of any effect of light
and shade rapidly, since the masses can be laid
in readily, and greater richness and depth can be
obtained in shorter time, perhaps, than by any
other kind of pencil.
Charcoal is also very serviceable for large car-
toon-work, since it is capable of both delicacy and
force, and bears working up to any extent. A
slight rubbing of the finger gives half tones when
wanted, and is often serviceable in giving greater
solidity and finish to the work.
Then there is the lead pencil — the point-of-
all-work, as it might be called — more generally
serviceable than any other, whether for rapid
sketches and jottings in the note-book, or careful
and detailed drawings, or sketching in for the
smaller kinds of design-work. It is also, of
course, used for drawings which are afterwards
" inked in." I do not think, however, that pen-
work done in this way is so free or characteristic
as when done direct, or at any rate quite freely,
upon a mere scaffolding of preliminary lines, used
only to make the plans for the chief masses and
forms.
Pencil drawing is capable of being carried to a
greater pitch of delicacy and finish, and has a
silvery quality all its own. It has not the force
or range of charcoal, but in its own technical
range it possesses many advantages. Its gray
and soft line, however charming in itself, does
not fit it for work where sharpness and precision
of line and touch are required, as may be said to
70
THE PEN
be the case with all work intended to be repro-
duced by some process of handicraft or manu-
facture, except some sorts of photo-engraving or
lithography. We must therefore look to another
implement to enable us to obtain these qualities,
namely, the brush, the use and qualities of which I
have already touched upon.
There remains yet another point of the firm
and decisive order, the pen, which enables us to
get firmness and sharpness of line and precise
definition, as well as considerable range of treat-
ment and freedom of touch.
The pen seems to bear much the same relation
to the brush as the lead pencil does to charcoal —
not capable of such full and rich effects or such
flowing freedom of line, but yet possessing its own
beauty and characteristic kinds of expression. Its
true province is in comparatively small scale work,
and its natural association is with its sister-pen of
literature in the domain of book-design and deco-
j ration, and black and white drawing for the press.
Its varieties are endless, and the ingenuity of
manufacturers continually places before us fresh
choice of pen-points to work with ; but though
one occasionally meets with a good steel pen, I
have found it too often fails one just when it is
sufficiently worn to the right degree of flexibility.
One returns to the quill, which can be cut to suit
the particular requirements of one's work. For
large bold drawing the reed-pen has advantages,
and a pleasant rich quality of line.
But with whatever point we may work, the
great object is to be perfectly at ease with it in
drawing — to thoroughly master its use and capa-
THE PEN
cities, so that in our search for that other com-
mand, of line and form, we may feel that we have
in our hands a tool upon which we can rely, a
trusty spear to bear down the many difficulties
and discouragements that beset, like threatening
dragons, the path of the art-student.
72
CHAPTER IV
Of the Choice of Form — Elementary Forms— Space-filling
—Grouping — Analogies of Form — Typical Forms of Ornament
— Ornamental Units — Equivalents in Form — Quantities in De-
sign— Contrast — Value of Variations of Similar or Allied Forms
— Use of the Human Figure and Animal Forms in Ornamental
Design.
WE were considering the choice and use of
Line in the last chapter : its expressive
characters and various methods. We now come
to the no less important question to the designer
and draughtsman — The Choice of Form.
If Line may be said to be the bone and sinew
of design, Form is the substance and the flesh,
and both are obviously essential to its free life and
development.
The cube and the sphere give us the funda-
mental elements, or primal types from which are
derived the multifarious, ever varying, and com-
plex forms, the products of the forces and condi-
tions of nature, or the necessitous inventiveness
of art, just as we may take the square and the
circle to be the parents of linear and geometric
design.
The cube and the sphere, the ellipse, the cone,
and the pyramid, with other comparatively simple
forms of solid geometry, present themselves to
73
ELEMENTARY FORMS
the student as elementary tests of draughtsman-
ship— of the power, that is, of representing solid
ELEMENTARY FORMS: PYRAMID, SPHERE, CUBE, HEXAGON, CONE.
bodies upon a plane surface. Such forms being
more simple and regular than any natural forms,
they are supposed to reduce the problem of draw-
USE OF ELEMENTARY FORMS IN ARCHITECTURE.
ing to its simplest conditions. They certainly
afford very close tests of correctness of eye,
making any fault in perspective or projection at
once apparent.
74
POPPYHEADS.
75
ELEMENTARY FORMS
To avoid, however, falling into mechanical ways,
and to maintain the interest and give vitality to
such studies, the relation of such forms to forms
in nature and art should be borne in mind, and no
opportunity missed of comparing them, or of
seeking out their counterparts, corresponding
principles, and variations, as well as their practical
bearing, both functional and constructive ; as in
the case of the typical forms of flowers, buds, and
seed-vessels, for instance, where the cone and
the funnel, and the spherical, cylindrical, and
tubular principles are constantly met with, as
essential parts of the characters and organic
necessities of the plant : the cone and the funnel
mostly in buds and flower-petals for protection
and inclosure of the pollen and seed germs, the
tube for conducting the juices ; the spherical form
to resist moisture externally, or to hold it in-
ternally, or to avoid friction, and facilitate close
storage, as in the case of seeds in pods. The
seed-vessel of the poppy, for instance, has a
curious little pent-house roof to shield the inter-
stices (like windows in a tower) till the seed is
ripe and the time comes for it to be shaken out
of the shell or pod. A further practical reason
for the prevalence of spherical form in seeds is
that they may, when the outer covering or husk
perishes, more readily roll out and fall into the
interstices of the ground ; or when, as in the case
of various fruits, such as the apple and orange,
the envelope itself is spherical and intended to
carry their flat or pointed seeds to the ground,
where it falls and rolls when ripe.
The cube and the various multiple forms may
ELEMENTARY FORMS
be found in crystals and basaltic rocks, as well as
in organic nature, as, for instance, in the honey-
comb of bees, where choice of form is a construc-
tive necessity : the cube is in every sense of the
word the corner-stone in architecture, and with-
out squaring and plumbing no building could be
constructed, while the cylindrical and conical prin-
APPLE CUT TO SHOW POSITION OF SEEDS.
ciples of form are illustrated in towers and roofs,
spires and pinnacles. In architectural ornament
and carved decoration the cube and sphere again
form the basis, both forming ornaments them-
selves by mere recurrence and repetition, and
also forming constructional bases of ornament.
A very simple but effective form of carved
77
DOG-TOOTH ORNAMENT
ornament characteristic of early Gothic work is
what is known as the dog-tooth. This is formed
CUIJE AND SPHERE IN ARCHITECTURAL ORNAMENT : BRICK
DENTAL, BALL FLOWER MOULDING, AND DOG-TOOTH
MOULDING.
simply by cutting a cube of stone
into a pyramid, depressing the
sides, and cutting them into geo-
metric leaves, leaving the sharp
angles of the pyramid from the
base to the apex standing out
in bold relief. In ground-plan DOG.TOOTH FORMED
this is simply composed geometri-
cally of a rectangle divided diago-
nally into four equal parts, and by striking four
semicircles from the centres of the four sides of
the rectangle. Here we get a form of ornament
78
FROM CUBE.
FILLING OF SPACES
in the flat which appears to have been very widely
used, and reappears in the early art of nearly all
races so far as I am aware. We find it, for
instance, in Assyrian carving and in early Greek
decoration, in China and Japan, and in European
mediaeval work of all kinds. Its charm perhaps
lies in its simplicity of construction yet rich orna-
mental effect, either as carved work or as a flat
painted diaper. It might also be used as the geo-
metric basis of an elaborate repeating wall-pattern
over a large surface.
When it comes to the choice of form, when we
are face to face with a particular problem in design,
ornament, or decoration (say, as most frequently
happens, it is to fill a panel of a given shape and
size), we are bound to consider form in relation
to that particular panel, to the subject we pro-
pose to treat, and the method by which the de-
sign is to be produced, or the object and position
for which it is intended. This generally narrows
the range of possible choice. Firstly, there is the
shape of the panel itself. A well-known exercise
for the Teacher's Certificate under the Depart-
ment of Science and Art is to give a drawing of
a plant adapted to design in a square and a circle.
Now in the abstract one would be inclined to
select for a circular fitting different forms from
those one might select for a square filling, since I
always consider that the shape of the space must
influence the character of the filling in line and
form. Still, if the problem is to fill a square and
a circle by the same forms, or an adaptation of
them, we must rely more and more upon differ-
ence of treatment of these forms, and not try to
79
FILLING OF SPACES
squeeze round forms into rectangular space, or
rectangular forms into circular space. In a rose,
for instance, it would be possible to dwell on its
angular side for the square, and on its curvilinear
side for the circle. Anyway, we should seek in
the first place a good and appropriate motive.
FILLING OF SQUARE SPACE.
Supposing the design is forwood inlay, we should
have to select forms that would not cause unneces-
sary difficulty in cutting, since every form in the
design would have to be cut out in thin wood and
inserted in the corresponding hollow cut in the
panel or plank to receive it. Complex or compli-
cated forms would therefore be ruled out, as being
80
INLAY DESIGN
not only difficult or impossible to reproduce in the
material, but ineffective.
A true feeling for the particular effect and de-
corative charm of inlaid work should lead us to
limit ourselves to comparatively few and simple
forms, treating those forms in an emphatic but ab-
FILLING OF CIRCULAR SPACE.
stract way, and making use of recurring line and
form as far as possible. We might make an effective
panel, say, for a casket, or a clock-case, or a floor, by
strictly limiting ourselves to very few and simple
forms — say, for instance, a stem, a leaf, a berry, or
disc, and a bird form, or fruit and leaf forms. It
would be possible to build up a design with such ele-
ments both pleasant in effect and well adapted to the
8f~t
I - G
INLAY DESIGN
work. An excellent plan would be tocutout all one's
forms with knife or scissors in stiff paper, as a test
i . UNITS or
SIMPLE INLAY
PATTERN
2.. MOTIVE. FOR
INLAID PATTERN
BUILT OF THE
SAME
3 . TR£/\TA\£NT
OF FORM AS
PATTERN UNfTf
FOR. INLAID WORK
A
PATTERN MOTIVE
FOR. INLAID WOR-VC.
of the practicability of an inlay design. This is
actually done with the working drawing by the in-
lay cutter.
82
INLAY DESIGN
I once designed an inlaid floor for the centre of
a picture gallery. The scale was rather large, and
the work was bold. One kept to large, bold, and
simple forms — water-lilies and broad leaves, swans
scallop shells, and zigzag borders. Forms which
can be readily produced by the brush would gene-
rally answer well for inlay, since they would have
simpleand sweeping boundaries and flat silhouette.
And for inlay one is practically designing in black,
white, or tinted silhouette. This makes it verygood
practice for all designers, both for the invention it
tends to call out, owing to the limited resources and
restriction as to forms, and also as giving facility
and readiness in blocking in the masses of pattern.
The water-colour painter, too, would find that
blocking in in flat local colour all his forms and the
colours of his background was an excellent method
of preparatory work, and afforded good practice in
direct painting, since he could add his secondary
shades and tints in the same manner until the work
was brought to completion, while preserving that
fresh effect of the undisturbed washes which is the
great charm of water-colour.
In seeking forms to group together harmoniously
— which is the whole object of composition — we
shall find that much the same kind of principle
holds good whether we are arranging a still-life
group or designing a wall-paper or textile. It is
only a difference of degree and scale. In the one
case we are designing in the solid with the actual
objects, before drawing or painting them as a har-
monious pictorial composition ; in the other we are
arranging forms upon the flat with a view to har-
monious composition with a strictly decorative pur-
83
GROUPING OF ALLIED FORMS
pose in view. In the first we are dealing with
concrete form in the round ; in the second, gene-
rally speaking, with abstract form in the flat.
But in either case we want harmony. We can-
not, therefore, throw together a number of forms
unrelated to each in line, contour, or meaning. We
seek in composing or designing not contradictions,
GROUPING OF ALLIED FORMS : COMPOSITION OF CURVES.
but correspondences of form, with just an element
of contrast to give flavour and point. In grouping
pottery, for instance, we should not place big and
little or squat and slender forms close together
without connecting links of some kind. We want
a series of good lines that help one another and
lead up to one another in a kind of friendly co-
operation. Broad smooth forms and rounded sur-
faces, again, require relief and a certain amount of
GROUPING OF ALLIED FORMS
contrast. We feel the needof crisp leaves or flowers,
perhaps, with our pottery form. We may safely
go far, however, on the principle of grouping simi-
lar or allied forms, giving our composition as a
whole either a curvilinear or angular character in
GROUPING OF ALLIED FORMS : COMPOSITION OF ANGLES.
its general lines, masses, and forms, on the prin-
ciple ot like to like. This will entirely depend
upon our choice of grouping of form ; but the more
by our selection we make our composition tend
distinctly in the one direction or the other, the
more character it will be likely to possess.
In selecting forms for still-life grouping and
85
GROUPING
painting, I think increased interest might be gained
by arranging significant objects, accessories bear-
STILL-LIFE GROUP ILLUSTRATIVE OF WOOD-ENGRAVING.
ing upon particular pursuits, for instance, in natural
relationship and surrounding. Groups suggesting
certain handicrafts, for instance, such as the clear
glass globe of the wood-engraver, the sand-bag,
86
GROUPING
the block upon it, the tools, gravers lying around,
the eye-glass, an old book of woodcuts, and so forth.
Other groups suggestive of various arts and indus-
tries could be arranged — such motives as metal-
work, pottery, literature, painting, music, embroi-
dery, spring, summer, autumn, and winter, might
all be suggestively illustrated by well-selected
JAPANESE DIAGONAL PATTERN.
groups of still life. Even different historic periods
might be emblematically suggested — I should like
to see more done in this way.
To return to design in the flat. If we start with
a motive of circular masses, we cannot suddenly
associate them with sharp angles — I mean in our
leading forms. Of course we can make a network
or trellis or diaper of the angles, to form a mat,
87
TREATMENT OF FRUIT AND LEAF FORMS : CORRESPONDING
CURVATURE.
CORRESPONDING FORMS
ground, or a framework on which to place our broad
masses, as we may see effectively done by the
Chinese and Japanese.
If the principal group of forms in our pattern,
say, are fruit forms — apples, pomegranates, or
oranges — we must re-echo or carry out the curves
in a lesser degree in the connecting stems and
leaves. Change the form of the fruit, say, to lemons,
and a further variation of connecting or subsidiary
curve in stems and leaves will naturally suggest
itself, and at the same time in following such prin-
ciples we shall be expressing in an abstract way
more of the character of the tree or plant itself. In
looking at the leaf of a tree one may often see a
suggestion of the general character and contour of
the tree itself, and we know the line :
"Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined."
In dealing with angular motives the same prin-
ciple would be followed, but corresponding to the
difference of motive. Let the form of^your detail
be reflected in the character_ofj/mir mass.
"I Have spoken of the necessity in designing of
seeking correspondences in form, and although,
could we place every form in proper sequence and
supply all the intermediary links to unite them
harmoniously, forms of extreme diversity might
thus be associated, given great extension of space
(as in wall decoration, for instance), even then we
should want these forms to correspond and recur.
Yet, as a rule, having to deal in design with what
are really parts rather than wholes, we can only
endeavour by making the design of these parts sim-
ple and harmonious in line and form, and true to
CORRESPONDENCE IN GENERAL CONTOUR BETWEEN LEAF
AND TREE.
90
SOME ANALOGIES IN FORM.
91
ANALOGIES OF FORM
their special conditions, to render their association
decoratively possible.
Certain forms seem to lend themselves to design
in ornament better than others, because they give
the designer certain lines and masses which can be
harmoniously repeated or combined with other al-
lied forms or lines. Design from this point of view
becomes a search for analogies of form.
I mentioned certain simple geometric forms com-
mon to nature and art. Early ornament consists
in the repetition of such forms. The next step was
to connect them by lines : and so form and line,
through endless vicissitudes and complexities, be-
came united, to live happily in the world of decor-
ative motive ever after. But long after the primitive
unadorned geometric forms themselves have ceased
to be the chief forms in ornament, their controlling
influence is asserted over the boundaries of the
more complicated masses introduced.
The simple rectangle is disguised under the fret,
the circle and spiral assert their swa-y over the
boundaries of the palmette, or circle and semicircle
unite to form the oval so frequently used both as a
unit in Greek ornament and as a controlling bound-
ary. These are typical border forms : for extension
and repetition in fields of pattern we find the same
oeometric plans at work in combination and sub-
division, forming at first the ornament itself, and
afterwards furnishing the plan and controlling
boundaries only. Even in later stages in the evo-
lution of surface decoration, in what are called
naturalistic floral patterns, amid apparent careless-
ness and freedom, by the exigencies of repetition
the ghost of buried geometric connection reappears,
92
o o o
RYTMM r^y CONNECPNC, t-li^E
ODD
5QUARE
THE PARENT
PATTERN &
SIMPLE. REPETITION
CIRCLE
FORMS OF
TREE OF TYPICAL PATTERN FORMS, UNITS, AND SYSTEMS.
93
TYPICAL FORMS OF ORNAMENT
and compels the most naturalistic roses on a wall-
paper to acknowledge themselves artificial after all,
as they nod to their counterparts from the masked
angles of the inevitable diaper repeat.
We find in the historical forms of decorative art
constantly recurring types of form and line, such
as the lotus of the Egyptians, the anthemia of the
Greeks, the pineapple-like flower and palmette of
the Persians, the peony of the Chinese. These
forms, at first valued solely for their symbolical and
heraldic significance, and continually demanded,
became to the designer important elements or units
in ornament. They gave him fine sweeping curves,
radiating lines, and bold masses, without which a
designer cannot live, any more than a poet without
words. They were capable, too, of infinite varia-
tion in treatment, a variation which has been con-
tinued ever since, as by importation to different
countries (the movement going on from east to
west) the same forms were treated by designers of
different races, and became mixed with other native
elements, or consciously imitated as they are now
by Manchester designers and manufacturers, to be
sold again in textile form to their original owners,
as it were, in the far East. Truly, a strange turn
of the wheel.
The range of choice in ornamental units is, in-
deed, embarrassingly large for themodern designer,
and a careful and tasteful selection becomes of more
and more importance. It is not the number of
forms you can combine, or because they are of Per-
sian or Chinese origin, that your work will be ar-
tistic, but the judicious and inventive use made of
the elements of your design. Ready-made units,
94
ORNAMENTAL UNITS
such as the Oriental forms I have mentioned, are
no doubt easier to combine, to make an effect with,
because a certain amount of selection has already
been done. In fact, with such forms as the Persian
or Indian palmette, we are dealing with the results
of centuries of ornamental evolution, and with em-
blems immemorially treasured by ancient races. It
behoves us, if we are called upon to recombine
them, to treat them with sympathy, refinement, and
respect, and to let them deteriorate as little as pos-
sible, for the spirit of an important ornamental form
\is like a gathered flower — it soon withers and be-
comes limp.
It is the spirit, after all, that is the important
thing to preserve, in decorative design, however
widely we may depart from the letter sometimes.
This is a difficult quality to define, but I should say
it chiefly consists in a nice attention to the charac-
ter of form, the elastic spring of curves, an under-
standing of the construction and proportions, and
grasp of the effect In designing we constantly feel
the need of repeating certain masses with variations
or balancing them by equivalents, or the necessity
of leading up to certain main forms by subsidiary
forms, and to carry out their lines in other parts of
the composition. In designing figures or emblems,
for instance, within inclosed spaces, such as shields
or cartouche shapes, forming leading elements in a
design, it requires much invention and ornamental
feeling so to arrange them that, while different
in subject or meaning, and differently spaced,
they shall yet properly counterbalance each other,
and, though varied in detail, shall yet be equiva-
lent in quantity. The same sort of feeling would
95
EQUIVALENTS IN FORM
govern the case of designing two masses of fruit
and foliage, say, forming two halves of an oblong
panel, which, though starting on the symmetric
plan from the centre, are not intended to be alike
SKETCHES TO SHOW USE OF COUNTERBALANCE, QUANTITY, AND
EQUIVALENTS IN DESIGNING.
in detail ; or in a frieze composed of a series of
formalized trees, where it was desired to have each
different, say, to express the progression of the
seasons, it would be the sense of the necessity of
96
QUANTITIES AND COUNTERCHANGE OF BORDER AND FIELD IN
CARPET MOTIVES.
97
II
QUANTITIES IN DESIGN
equivalents which would govern the decorative
effect.
Such considerations naturally lead us to the
question of the use of quantities in design — the
ornamental proportions of ornament, or the con-
SKETCH TO ILLUSTRATE VALUE OF DIFFERENT QUANTITIES
IN PERSIAN RUGS.
trasting distribution of form and line. For the
mere repetition of ornamental forms over surfaces
and objects without reference to proportion or
structure is not decoration. The perception of ap-
propriate quantities in design is really the decor-
ative gauge or measure of effect.
In designing a bordered panel — or say a carpet
QUANTITIES IN DESIGN
—we might decide to throw the weight of pattern,
colour, or emphasis upon either the field or border.
Supposing the field had a dark ground upon which
the arabesque or floral design was relieved, in the
SKEICII TO ILLUSTRATE VALUE OF DIFFERENT QUANTITIES
IN PERSIAN RUGS.
border it would be most effective to transpose this
arrangement, making the ground light, and bring-
ing out the border design dark upon it. Or, if the
motive were reversed, giving a light ground to the
99
QUANTITIES IN DESIGN
centre, with the pattern dark, the border might be
brought out on a dark field. Or, again, for a less
emphatic treatment the quantities of the pattern
itself might be almost infinitely varied, massive
forms and close fillings contrasting with open bor-
ders and united with intermediary bands.
SKETCH TO ILLUSTRATE VALUE OF DIFFERENT QUANTITIES
IN PERSIAN RUGS.
These intermediary bands or subsidiary borders
are very important in Eastern rugs and carpets,
and their quantities very carefully considered. A
Persian designer, for instance, would never leave a
blank unbroken strip of colour to surround his field;
his object is not to isolate the quantities of his pat-
tern, but to distinguish and unite them : so he makes
use of the subsidiary borders as additional quanti-
100
CONTRAST
ties. A usual arrangement which always looks
well is to have the border proper inclosed in two
, • bands of about the same width and quantity in pat-
tern— or they might be a repeat of each other—
and to inclose the field or centre within another
narrow subsidiary border. But the variations to be
observed in any chance selection of Persian rugs
or carpets are constant, and the amount of subtle
variety and invention in these subsidiary borders
is endless.
Very excellent examples of the treatment and
distribution of quantities may also be studied in the
older Indian printed cottons, such as maybe seen
at South Kensington.
The consideration of quantities in form and de-
sign involves the question of contract) which, in-
deed, can hardly be separated from it. There is
the contrast of form and line, and the contrast of
colour and plane. It is with the first kind we are
dealing now.
Take the simplest linear border, such as the type
common in Greek work. We should easily weary
of the continual repetition of such a form alone
and unassisted, but add a vertical with an alterna-
tive dark filling, and we get a certain richness and
solidity which is a relief at once. Add another
quantity, and we get the rich effect of the egg and
tongue or egg and dart moulding.
A still simpler instance of the use of contrast,
however, is the chequer, or the principle of equal
alternation of dark and light masses ; but this
touches colour contrast rather than form.
The love of contrast makes the Chinese porce-
lain-painter break the blue borders of his plates
101
uuuuu
uiuiu
RECURRENCE AND CONTRAST IN BORDER MOTIVES.
102
VARIATION OF ALLIED FORMS
with small cartouche-like forms inclosing the light
ground, varied with a spray or device of some light
kind ; or the diagonal, closely-filled field of his
woven silk by broad discs or cartouches of another
plane of ornament. But the love of sharp or very
violent contrasts, more especially of form, may
easily lead one astray and be destructive of orna-
mental effect. Like all decorative considerations,
the artistic use of contrast depends much upon the
particular case and the conditions of the work, and
one cannot lay down any unvarying rules. There
are agreeable and disagreeable contrasts, and their
choice and use must depend upon the individual
artist.
The most beautiful kinds of design rather seem
to depend upon the harmonious variation in asso-
ciation of similar or allied forms than on sharp
contrasts.
In compositions of figures the association of the
delicate curves and angles of the human form, and
the lines of drapery, with the emphatic verticals
and horizontals, the semicircles and rectangles of
architectural form, for instance, are always delight-
ful in competent hands ; as also compositions of
figure and landscape, with its possibilities of undu-
lating line corrected by the severe horizon, or sea-
line, and contrasted with the vertical lines of trees,
stems, and the rich forms of foliage masses.
For the same reasons both of correspondence
and contrast, masses of type or lettering of good
form are admirable as foils to figure designs, in
which commemorative monuments of all kinds and
book designs afford abundant opportunities to the
designer.
103
USE OF INCLOSING BOUNDARIES IN DESIGNING ANIMAL FORMS
IN DECORATIVE PATTERN.
104
DECORATIVE SPACING OF FIGURES WITHIN GEOMETRIC
BOUNDARIES.
105
USE OF HUMAN FIGURE AND ANIMAL FORMS
In surface or textile decoration of all kinds
nothing gives so much relief and vitality as the
judicious use of animal forms and the human figure,
although they are not much favoured at present.
The forms of birds and animals, if designed in re-
lation to the rest of the pattern, will give a pleas-
ant variety of form and line, and in their forms and
lines we find just those elements both of corre-
spondence and contrast, in their relation to geo-
metric or to floral design, which are so valuable.
In order. to combine such forms successfully,
however, great care in designing is necessary; and
a good sound principle to follow as a general guide
is to make the boundaries of the bird or animal
touch the limits of an imaginary inclosing form
of some simple geometric or floral or leaf shape
(see p. 104). This would at once control the form
and render it available in a pattern as a decorative
mass or unit. The particular shape of the con-
trolling form must, of course, depend upon the
general character of the design, whether free and
flowing or square and restricted, the nature of the
repeat, the ultimate position of the work, and so on.
A study of Gothicheraldryand the earlySicilian silk
patterns would be very instructive in this connec-
tion, since it is rather the heraldic ideal than that
of the natural history book which is decoratively
appropriate. At the same time it is quite possible
to combine ornamental treatment with a great deal
of natural truth in structure and character.
Much the same principles apply to the treatment
of the human figure as an element in ornament ;
they should be designed, whether singly or in
groups, under the control of imaginary bound-
106
USE OF HUMAN FIGURE AND ANIMAL FORMS
aries, and care must be taken that in line and mass
they re-echo (or are re-echoed by) other lines which
connect them with the rest of the design, if they
occur as incidents in repeating wall-paper or hang-
ing design, for instance. It is, however, quite pos-
sible to imagine a decorative effect produced by
the use of figures alone (see p. 105), with some-
thing very subsidiary in the way of connecting
links of linear or floral pattern, much as figures
were used by the ancient Greek vase-painters,
beautifully distributed as ornament over the con-
cave or convex surfaces of the vases and vessels
of the potter, the forms of which, as all good de-
coration should do, they helped to express as well
as to adorn
107
CHAPTER V
Of the Influence of Controlling Lines, Boundaries, Spaces,
and Plans in Designing — Origin of Geometric Decorative
Spaces and Panels in Architecture — Value of Recurring Line
—Tradition — Extension — Adaptability — Geometric Structural
Plans— Frieze and Field — Ceiling Decoration — Co-operative
Relation.
THE function of line considered from the point
of view of its controlling influence as a
boundary, or inclosure, of design, upon which I
touched in the last chapter, is a very important
one, and deserves most attentive study.
The usual problem a designer in the flat has to
solve is to fill harmoniously a given space or panel
defined by a line —some simple geometric form-
such as a square or a circle, a parallelogram, a dia-
mond, a lunette.
Now it is possible to regard such spaces or
panels as more or less unrelated, and simply as the
boundaries of an individual composition or picture
of somekind. Yetevensoconsideredacertain sense
of geometric control would come in in the selection
of our lines and masses, both in regard to each other
and in regard to the shape of the inclosing bound-
ary. We seem to feel the need of some answer-
ing line or re-echo in the character of the compo-
sition to the shape of its boundary, to give it its
1 08
RELATION OF DESIGN TO BOUNDARY : SIMPLE LINEAR MOTIVES
AND PATTERN BASES.
INFLUENCE OF CONTROLLING LINES, ETC.
distinctive reason for existence in that particular
form — just as we should expect a shell-fish to con-
form to the shape of its shell. Such a re-echo or
acknowledgment might be ever so slight, or might
be quite emphatic and dominate as the leading
motive, but for perfectly harmonious effect it must
be there.
A strictly simple and logical linear filling of such
spaces might be expressed in the most primitive
way, as in the illustration on p. 109.
By these means certain primitive types of orna-
ment are evolved, such as the Greek volute and
the Greek key or fret, the logical ornament of a
logical people.
Such arrangements of line form simple linear
patterns, and a decorative effect of surface is pro-
duced simply by their repetition, especially if the
principle of alternation be observed. This prin-
ciple may be expressed by taking, say, a series of
squares or circles, and placing them either in aline
as for a border arrangement, or for extension ver-
tically and laterally over a surface, and filling only
the alternate square or circle, leaving the alternate
ones, or dropping them out altogether (see illus-
tration, p. 111).
When we desire to go beyond such primitive
linear ornaments, however, and introduce natural
form, we should still be guided by the same prin-
ciples, if we desire to produce a strictly decorative
effect, while varying them in application to any
extent
. It matters not what forms we deal with, floral,
animal, human; directly we come to combine them
in a design, to control them by a boundary, to in-
1 10
(§)
<§»
USE OF INTERVALS IN REPEATING THE SAME ORNAMENTAL
UNITS.
I I I
DESIGNS OF FLORAL, HUMAN, AND ANIMAL FORMS, GOVERNED
BY SHAPE OF INCLOSING BOUNDARY.
I 12
INFLUENCE OF CONTROLLING LINES, ETC.
close them in a space, we shall feel this necessity
of controlling line, which, however concealed, is
yet essential to bring them into that harmonious
relation which is the essence of all design (see
illustration, p. 1 12).
We may take it as a general rule that the more
purely ornamental the purpose of our design, and
j the more abstract in form it is, the more emphati-
i cally we may carry out the principle of corre-
spondence of line between that of the inclosing
boundary and that of the design itself ; and, vice
versa, as the design becomes more pictorial in its
appeal and more complex and varied in its ele-
ments, the more we may combine the leading
motive or principle of line with secondary ones, or
with variations, since every fresh element, every
new direction of line, every new form introduced,
demands some kind of re-echo to bring it into
relation with the other elements of the design, or
parts of the composition, whatever may be its
nature and purpose.
Now, if we seek further the meaning and origin
of this necessity of the control of geometric lines
and spaces in design, I think we shall find it in the
constructive necessities of architecture : for it is
certainly from architecture that we derive those
typical spaces and panels the designer is so often
called upon to fill.
Lintel architecture— the Egyptian and the Greek
—gave us the frieze, both continuous, as in that of
the Cella of the Parthenon, or divided by triglyphs,
which represented the ends of the beams of the
primitive timber construction ; and the interstices
left between these determined the shape of the
113 i
PEDIMENT
METOPE1?
THE PARTHENON : SKETCH TO SHOW SPACES USED FOR
DECORATIVE SCULPTURE IN GREEK ARCHITECTURE.
114
ORIGIN OF GEOMETRIC DECORATIVE SPACES
sculptured panel or slab inserted, and influenced
the character of its masses and the lines of its de-
sign, which was under the necessity of harmonizing
with the whole building (see illustration, p. 114).
The same may be said of the pediments. The
angle of the low-pitched roof left another interstice
ORIGIN OF GEOMETRIC DECORATIVE SPACES
for the sculptor at each end of the building ; and I
have elsewhere1 pointed out the influence of the
inclosing space and the angles of the pediment of
the Parthenon upon the arrangement of the groups
within it, and even upon the lines taken by some
of the figures, especially the reclining figures near
the acute angles.
Certain lines become inseparably associated with
constructive expression, and are used to emphasize
it, as the vertical flutings of the Doric column, by
repeating the lines of the column itself, emphasize
its constructive expressionof supporting the weight
of the horizontal lintels, the lines of which, repeated
in the mouldings of the frieze and cornice, are as-
sociated with level restfulness and secure repose.
As examples of design which, while meeting the
structural necessities and acknowledging the con-
trol of space and general conditions, as the form
of the slabs upon which they are .sculptured, yet
expresses independent movement, the figures of
the octagonal tower of the winds at Athens are
interesting (see illustration, p. 115).
Quite a different feeling, corresponding to dif-
ferences in conception and spirit in design, comes
in with the Roman round arck,\v\\\\ its allied forms
of spandril and va^Ut, lunette and medallion, pre-
senting new spaces for the surface designer, and
new suggestions of ornamental line(see illustration,
p. 117). It is noticeable how, with the round-
arched architecture under Roman, Byzantine (see
illustration, p. 118), and Renaissance forms, the
scroll form of ornament developed, the reason be-
ing, I think, that it gave the necessary element of
1 See " Bases of Design."
Tl6
SKETCH OF PART OF THE ARCH OF CONSTANTINE TO
SHOW SPACES FOR DECORATIVE SCULPTURE IN
ROMAN ARCHITECTURE.
BYZANTINE (MOSAIC) TREATMENT OF ARCHITECTURAL STRUC-
TURAL FEATURES : APSE, S. VITALE, RAVENNA.
VALUE OF RECURRING LINE
recurring line, whether used in the horizontal frieze
in association with round arches, or in spandrilsof
vaults and arcades, and on marble mosaic pave-
ments.
The development of Gothic architecture, with
its new constructive features and the greater
variety of geometric spaces, forms, and interstices
\ which, as a consequence, were available for the
Idesigner of associated ornament, whether carved
work, mosaic, stained glass, or painting, naturally
led to a corresponding variety in invention and
decorative adaptation ; and we may trace the same
1 principle at work in other forms — I mean the
principle of corresponding, counterbalancing, and
recurring line — Gothic ornament being indeed
generally an essential part of the structure, and
architectural features being constantly repeated
and utilized for their ornamental value, as in the
case of canopies and tabernacle work.
We see, for instance, in the Decorated period
the acute gable moulding over the arched recess,
niche, doorway, or tomb, lightened and vivified by
a floriated finial springing into vigorous curves
from a vertical stem, forming an emphatic ogee
outline which re-echoes the ogee line of the arch
below, and is taken up in variations by the crockets
carved upon the sides of the gable; and their
spiral ascending lines lead the eye up to the finial
which completes the composition. We may trace
the same principle in the carved fillings of the sub-
sidiary parts, such as the trefoiled panels, the se-
condary mouldings, and the cusps of the arches,
which continue the line-motive or decorative har-
mony to the last point (see illustration, p. 120).
119
VALUE OF RECURRING LINE
The elegance and lightness of the pinnacles is in-
creased in the same way, and further emphasized
by the long vertical lines of the sunk panels upon
their sides.
In church doorways we may see certain voussoirs
of the arch allowed to project from the hollow of
1 20
VALUE OF RECURRING LINE
the concave moulding, and their surfaces carved
into bosses of ornament ; while, again, the doorway
is emphasized by the recurring lines of the mould-
ings, with their contrasting planes of light and
shadow, and the point of their spring is marked
121
VALUE OF RECURRING LINE
by a carved lion, controlled in the design of its
contour by the squareness of the block of stone
upon which it is carved (see illustration, p. 121).
The carvings of miserere seats in our cathedral
choirs often afford instances of ingenious design
and arrangement of elements difficult to combine,
yet. always showing the instinct of following the
control of the dominating form and peculiar lines
of the seat itself. There is an instance of one
from St. David's Cathedral — apparently a humor-
ous satire — a goose-headed woman offering a cake
to a man-headed gull (?), or perhaps they are both
geese ! I won't pretend to say, but it evidently
is intended to suggest cupboard love, and there is
a portentously large pitcher of ale in reserve on
the bench. But note the clever arrangement of
the masses and lines, and how the lines of the
122
VALUE OF RECURRING LINE
seat and the curves of the terminating scroll are
re-echoed in the lines of the figures and acces-
sories.
A stone-carving from the end of a tomb in the
same cathedral — that of Bishop John Morgan,
1504 — of a griffin with a shield shows an em-
phatic repetition of the inclosing line of the
arched recess in the curves of the wings which
follow it.
There is also a charming corbel of a half-figure
of an angel, which, though somewhat defaced,
shows the architectural sense very strongly in its
design — the vertical droop of the wing-feathers
inclosing the figure repeating and continuing the
vertical lines of the shafts and the subsidiary
mouldings of the arrangement of the drapery, and
123
VALUE OF RECURRING LINE
its termination in crisp foliated forms, which
pleasantly counterbalance the set of the scale
feathers of the wings and break the semicircular
mouldings of the base of the corbel, repeating
those of the shafts above.
Adaptation to spaces upon a flat surface is also
124
ADAPTABILITY IN DESIGN
illustrated in some tile patterns from the same
place. They are simple and rude but very effec-
• GOTHIC • me -
• PflTT£RM -
'S DflVID'S CATN'
tive bits of spacing, and show a thorough grasp
of the principles we have been considering — if,
indeed, it is so far conscious work at all. But
ADAPTABILITY IN DESIGN
whether or not the outcome of a tradition which
seemed to be almost instinctive with mediaeval
workmen — a tradition which yet left the individual
free, and under which design was a thing of life
and growth, ever adapting itself to new conditions,
and grafting freely new inventions to flower in
fresh phantasy upon the ancient stock — the move-
ment in art in the Middle Ages, exhibiting as it
does a gradual growth and a constant vitality,
always accompanying and adapting itself to
structural changes, to life and habit, was really
more analogous to the development of mechanical
science in our own day, where each new machine
is allied to its predecessors, though it supplants
them. The one law being adaptability, the one
aim to apply means to ends, and more and more
perfectly, inessentials and superfluities are shed,
and invention triumphs. It is, too, a collective
advance, since each engineer, each inventor, builds
upon the experience of both his forerunners and
his fellow-workers, and everything is brought to
an immediately practical test.
We are not yet in the same healthy condition as
regards art, and art can never be on the same
plane as science, though art may learn much
from science, chiefly perhaps in the direction
of the inventive adaptation of analogous prin-
ciples, But in art the question is complicated by
human feeling and association, and her strongest
appeal is to these, and by these, and as yet we do
not seem to have any terms or equivalents precise
enough to describe, or any analysis fine enough to
discover them.
The next consideration in spacing we may term
126
EXTENSION
extension. This bears upon all surface design,
but more especially upon the design of patterns
intended to repeat over a large surface, and not
specially designed for particular spaces. It is a
great question whether any design can be entirely
satisfactory unless it has been thought out in rela-
tion to some particular extent of surface or as
adapted to some particular wall or room. Modern
industrial conditions preclude this possibility as
a rule, and so the only sure ground, beyond in-
dividual taste and preference, is technical adapta-
bility to process or material. We should naturally
want to give a different character to a textile pat-
tern, whether printed or woven, and intended to
hang in folds, from one for flat extension as a wall-
paper ; and a different character again to such
designs intended for extension horizontally from
those intended for vertical space alone. Floor
patterns, parquets and carpets, for instance, natur-
ally demand different treatment from wall pat-
terns, as those orders of plants in nature which
cling and spread on the flat ground differ from
those which grow high and maintain themselves
in the air, or climb upon trees. The rule of life
— adaptability — obtains in art as in nature, and,
beneath individual preference and passing fashion,
works the silent but real law of relation to condi-
tions. This again bears upon the choice of scale,
and differentiates the design of dress textiles from
furniture textiles, and the design of varied sur-
faces and objects, which, while demanding their
own particular treatment, are brought into general
relation by their association with use and the
wa^ts of humanity.
127
WATTLED FENCL
C«U!LLOCHE
2k -£li»Si2.-
PAINTED WALL, FOLLOW INC,
OF
gRicK ^c5TON/E STRUCTURE
EXTENSION : SURFACE PATTERN MOTIVES DERIVED FROM
LINES OF STRUCTURE.
128
SURFACE EXTENSION : REPEATING PATTERNS BUILT UPON
(l) SQUARE AND (2) CIRCULAR BASIS.
129 K
GEOMETRIC STRUCTURAL PLANS, ETC.
The law governing extension of design over
surface is again geometric, and our primal circle
and square are again the factors and progenitors
of the leading systems which have governed the
design of diapers and wall patterns and hangings
of all kinds. Nay, the first weaver of the wattle d
fence discovered the principle of extension in
design, and showed its inseparable association
with construction ; and the builder with brick or
stone emphasizes it, producing the elements of
linear surface pattern, from the mechanical neces-
sity of the position of the joints of his structure.
At a German railway station waiting-room I
noticed an effective adaptation of this principle
as a wall decoration in two blues upon a stone
colour (see illustration, p. 128). We may build
upon such emphatic structural lines, either incor-
porating them with the design motive, as in all
rectangular wall diapers, or we may suppress or
conceal the actual constructive lines by placing
the principal parts or connections 'of our pattern
over them, but one cannot construct a satisfactory
pattern to repeat and extend without them ; for
these constructive lines or plans give the neces-
sary organic life and vigour to such designs, and
are as needful to them as the trellis to the tendrils
of the vine (see illustration, p. 129).
The same principle is true of designs upon the
curvilinear plan. The mere repetition of the
circle by itself gives us a simple geometric pat-
tern, and we are at liberty to emphasize this cir-
cular plan as the main motive ; or, as in the case
of the rectangular plans, to treat it merely as a
basis, and develop free scroll motives upon it; or
SURFACE EXTENSION : PLAN OF A DROP REPEAT.
GEOMETRIC STRUCTURAL PLANS, ETC.
follow it through its principal variations, as in the
ogee, formed by dropping out two intermediate
semicircles ; or the various forms of the scale
arrangement. These simple geometric plans are
the most generally useful as plans of designs in-
tended for repetition and extension over space,
and they are always safe and sound systems to
build upon, since a geometric plan is certain to
join comfortably if our measurements are right.
We may, however, often feel that we want
something bolder and freer, and start with a
motive of sweeping curves, non-geometric, but
even then a certain geometric relation will be
necessary, or an equivalent for it, since each curve
must be counterbalanced in some way, though
not necessarily symmetrically, of course ; and
even where a square of pattern — say to a wall-
paper repeat of twenty-one inches — has been de-
signed, not consciously upon a geometric base, but
simply as a composition of lines and masses to
repeat, the mechanical conditions of the work
when it comes to be printed will supply a certain
geometric control, since it necessarily begins in
the process of repetition a series of squares of
pattern in which the curves are bound to recur
in corresponding places. Without a geometric
plan of some sort, however, we may easily get
into difficulties with awkward leading lines, gaps,
or masses, that tumble down, and are only per-
ceived when the paper is printed and hung.
The designer should not feel at all restricted or
cramped by his geometric plan, but treat it as an
aid and a scaffolding, working in as much variety
and richness of detail as he likes, bound only by
132
FRIEZE AND FIELD
the necessity of repeating or counterbalancing his
forms and lines. In the diagram (p. 131) the
plan of making a repeat less obvious by means of
what is termed "a drop" is given, and this
system also increases the apparent width of a
pattern.
The feeling which demands some kind of con-
trast or relief to a field of repeating pattern, how-
ever interesting in itself, seems now almost in-
stinctive. It is felt, too, in the case of plain sur-
faces, where the eye seeks a moulding to give a
little variety or pattern-equivalent in play of light
and shadow upon different planes, lines, or con-
cavities and convexities. The common plaster
cornice placed to unite walls and ceiling, in our
ordinary houses, is a concession (on the part even
of the jerriest of builders) to the aesthetic sense.
We get the decorated frieze in architecture in
obedience to the same demand, though originally
a necessary feature of lintel construction, as we
have seen, from the days of the festal garland
hung around the eaves of the classic house, to its
perpetuation in stone in so many varieties.1 The
carved garland depending in a series of graceful
curves, or contrasted with pendants, or their
rhythm punctuated, as it were, by ox-heads, as on
the temple of the Sibyls, Tivoli, formed the
needed contrast to the plane masonry of the wall
below. Sculptured figures, with the added in-
terest of story, as on the choragic monument of
Lysicrates, fulfilled the same decorative function
in a more complex and elaborate way.
To satisfy the same feeling we place a frieze
1 See " Bases of Design."
J33
FRIEZE AND FIELD
above the patterned field of our modern wall-
papers. Such a frieze may be considered as a
contrasting border to the pattern of the field,
much as the border of a carpet, allowing for
difference of material and position ; or the frieze
may assert itself as the dominant decoration of
the room. In this case it would be greater in
depth than the simpler bordering type. The
interest df the field filling would then be sub-
sidiary, arid lead up to the frieze. In wall-paper
friezes the difficulty in designing is to think of a
motive which will not tire the eye in the neces-
sarily frequent repeats of twenty-one inches.
Longer ones have occasionally been produced,
the limit being sixty inches. It is often a good
plan to recur in the main lines or forms of the
frieze to some variation of the lines or forms of
the field. If, for instance, the main motive in the
field was a vertical scroll design, a horizontal scroll
design upon a large scale used for the frieze
would answer, the field being kept flat and quiet ;
or the fan, or radiating shell form, used as a frieze,
above a pattern on the scale plan, would be quite
harmonious. Relation and balance of line and
mass, and arrangement of quantities in such
designs, are the chief considerations.
With painting or modelling an artist is freer,
as he is at liberty to design a continuous frieze
of figures, and introduce as much variety as he
chooses.
A painted frieze of figures above plain oak-
panelling has a good effect in a large and well-
proportioned room, and is perhaps one of the
pleasantest ways of treating interior walls.
134
SKETCH DESIGNS TO SHOW RELATION BETWEEN FRIEZE AND
FIELD IN WALL-PAPER.
135
CEILING DECORATION
Ceiling decoration, again, presents problems of
extension in designing, and the large flat plaster
ceilings of modern rooms are by no means easy
to deal with satisfactorily. The simplest way is
to resort to wall-paper, and here, restricted in size
of repeat and the usual technical requirements of
the work, the designer must further consider ap-
propriateness of scale, and position in regard to
eye, relation to the wall, and so forth.
The natural demand is for something simpler
in treatment than the walls — a re-echo, in some
sort, of plans agreeable to the floor, yet with a
suggestion of something lighter and freer: here
we may safely come back to rectangular and cir-
cular plans again for our leading lines and forms.
Painting and modelling, again, offer more ela-
borate treatment and possibilities, and we know
that beautiful works have been done in both
ways ; but art of this kind seems more appropriate
to lofty vaulted chambers and churches, such as
one sees in the palaces of Italy, at Genoa and
Venice, at Florence and Rome.
I remember a very striking and bold treatment
of a flat-beamed ceiling in the Castle of Nurem-
berg, where a huge black German eagle was
painted so as to occupy nearly the whole field of
the ceiling, but treated in an extremely flat and
heraldic way, the long feathers of the wings fol-
lowing the lines of the beams and falling parallel
upon them and between them ; and upon the
black wings and body of the eagle different shields
of arms were displayed in gold and colours, the
eagle itself being painted upon the natural un-
painted wood — oak, I think. The work belonged
136
CO-OPERATIVE RELATION
to the thirteenth or fourteenth century, 1 believe.
It seemed the very antithesis of Italian finesse
and fancy, but the fitness of such decoration
entirely depends upon its relation to its surround-
ings, which in this case were perfectly appropriate.
That is the great point to bear in mind in all
design — the sense of relation ; nothing stands
alone in art. Lines and forms must harmonize
with other forms and lines : the elements of any
design must meet in friendly co-operation ; it is
not a blind struggle for existence, a fierce com-
petition, or a strife for ascendency between one
motive and another, one form and another, or a
war of conflicting efforts. There may be a struggle
outside the design, in the mind of the designer.
He may have tried hard against difficulties to
express what he felt, and have only reached har-
mony through discord and strife, but the work
itself should be serene ; we should feel that, how-
ever various its elements, they are not without
their purpose and relation one to another, that all
is ordered and organized in harmonious lines, that
everything has its use and place, that, in short, it
illustrates that excellent motto, whether for art or
life : " Each for all, and all for each."
137
CHAPTER VI
Of the Fundamental Essentials of Design : Line, Form,
Space — Principles of Structural and Ornamental Line in Or-
ganic Forms — Form and Mass in Foliage — Roofs — The Medi-
aeval City — Organic and Accidental Beauty — Composition :
Formal and Informal — Power of Linear Expression — Relation
of Masses and Lines — Principles of Harmonious Composition.
WE may take it, then, from the principles
and examples I have endeavoured to put
before you in the previous chapters, that there
are three fundamental elements or essentials of
Design — Line, 'Form, Space.
Line we need, not only for our ground-plan
and framework, but also to define or express our
forms. Form we need to give substance and
mass, interest and variety ; and it is obvious that
Space is required to contain all these elements,
while Space asserts its influence, as we have seen,
upon both Line and Form in combination upon
it, whether object or surface, by the shape of its
boundary, the extension of its plane, and the angle
and position of its plane in regard to the eye, as
well as from the point of view of material and use.
Questions of the character of line and form,
and their combination and disposition in or over
spaces, are questions of composition. They de-
mand the most careful solution, whatever our sub-
138
FUNDAMENTAL ESSENTIALS OF DESIGN
ject and purpose may be, from the simplest linear
border up to the most elaborate figure design.
But although the three essentials to composition
must be always present, it is always possible to
rely more upon the qualities of one of them for
our main motive and interest, keeping the other
two subsidiary. We might centralize the chief
interest of our composition upon Line, for in-
stance, and make harmonious relation or combina-
tion of lines our principal object (as in line-
design and ornament), or we might rather dwell
upon the contours, masses, and contrasts and
relationships of Form : as in pictorial design,
figure compositions of all kinds, and 'modelling
and sculpture: or, again, we might choose that
the peculiar character given by the control of
certain inclosing spaces should determine the
interest of our design, as the due filling of par-
ticular panels and geometric shapes ; or seek the
interest of aerial perspective in the pictorial and
atmospheric expression of space.
Taking combinations of Line first, and bearing
in mind what has been said regarding its capa-
cities for expression, whether of emotion, direction
of force, movement, rest, as well as of facts of struc-
ture and surface, let us see if we can trace the prin-
ciple of harmonious composition, of which these
things may be considered as parts.
Look at any of the systems of line in the organic
structures of nature : the radiating ribs of the scal-
lop shell, or the spiral of many other varieties ; the
set of the feathers upon the expanded wing of a
bird ; the radiation of the sun's rays ; the flowing
line of the wave movement ; the lines of structure
139
PRINCIPLES OF STRUCTURAL AND ORNAMENTAL LINE IN
NATURAL FORMS.
I4O
LINE IN ORGANIC FORMS
in flowers and leaves ; the scales of a fish ; the
scales of a pine-cone or an artichoke. We feel
that any of these combinations of lines are harmo-
nious and beautiful, and we know that they are
essential to the character and structure. They are
organic lines, in short. They mean life and growth.
In principle they are radiating and recurring lines ;
in each form they repeat each other in varying de-
grees of direction and declension of curve. No
two lines are alike, yet there is no contradiction
and no unnecessary line, and variety is combined
with unity. Each affords a perfect instance of
harmonious composition of line, and gives us de-
finite principles upon which to work (see illustra-
tion, p. 140).
These systems of line in organic nature have
been adopted and adapted by art, and are found
throughout the historical forms of ornament which,
as we have good reason to believe, were often de-
rived from mechanical structures, illustrating the
same principles ; which, again, the logic of geo-
metry enforces in drawing on plane surfaces.
All organic structures teach us the same lesson
of relation and recurrence of line. The bones of
all vertebrate animals, from fish to'man, illustrate
the constant repetition in different degrees of the
same character and direction of line. The verte-
bral column itself is an instance, and the recurring
spring of the ribs from it, like the branches from
the stem of a tree, further expressed in the ramifi-
cation of the jointed bones of the limbs and extrem-
ities. The principle may be followed out in the
structure of the muscles in their radiating fibres,
which the delicate contours and flowing lines of
141
RADIATING, RECURRING AND COUNTERBALANCING LINES IN THE
STRUCTURE OF THE SKELETON AND THE MUSCLES.
142
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF LINE AND FORM IN THE BRANCHING
AND FOLIAGE MASSES OF TREES.
'43
LINE IN ORGANIC FORMS
the surface of the body only combine in a greater
degree of subtlety (see illustration, p. 142).
Look at the anatomy of any tree, as it is dis-
closed to us in its wintry leaflessness, a beautiful
composition of line rather than of form (see illus-
tration, p. 143).
Here we see organic life and structure expressed
in the vigorous spring of inter-dependent and cor-
responding curves, from the rigid sinuous column
of the main stem springing from the ground, pre-
sently divided into the main forks of the branches,
which again subdivide and subdivide into smaller
forks, so that the tree may sustain and spread its
life in the air and the sun, both supporting and
continuing its existence by this wonderful economic
system of co-operative, subdivided, and graduated
helpfulness.
The massive green pavilion of summer, which
this delicate vaulting of branch-work sustains,
gives us another, more sumptuous, but perhaps
not a greater beauty in the combination or
substitution of form and mass for line composi-
tion.
We might express, in an abstract way, the prin-
ciple of the line-structure of the ramifying tree by
super-imposing vertically fork upon fork in gradu-
ally diminishing scale, either curvilinear or rect-
angular ; and the principle of the mass-structure
in the formation of the foliage might be expressed
by a series of overlapping curves, suggestive of
scales or cloud masses : to both of which indeed
they correspond in principle, illustrating the scale
principle in detail and the cloud principle in the
mass ; thus repeating the same general law of
144
it ALTERNATE
PRINCIPLES OF
GROWTH.
SYMMETRIC
PRINCIPLE OF
CR.6WTH
PRINCIPLES OF STRUCTURE IN FOLIAGE MASSES.
145
FORM AND MASS IN FOLIAGE
natural roofing, or covering, in different materials
(see illustration, p. 145).
In a mass of foliage each leaf falls partly over
the one below it, as by the system of their growth
and suspension upon the stem they are of course
bound to do, whether symmetric or alternate in their
arrangement, the gaps caused by decay oraccidtnt
being generally filled by new shoots. Each shoot,
eager to expand its leaves in the light, ever spread-
ALBERT DURER : DETAIL FROM * THE PRODIGAL SON."
ing, forms mass after mass of the beautiful green
panoply — the coat armour of the forest, arborea
man's first form of domestic architecture.
The principle of structure here is just the same
as the overlapping principle of the tiles and slates
upon our ordinary house-roofs ; but each leafy tile
is different, being alive, and in the mass infinitely
varied and beautiful in form and colour, instead of
being mechanical and uniform, as we try to make
our artificial roofs.
Very pretty and varied effects are produced in
146
GERMAN ROOFS
the old roofs of southern Germany by the use of
different coloured glazed tiles — red, green, and
yellow — arranged in simple patterns. One of the
ALBERT DURER : ST. ANTHONY.
old towers at Lindau has such a roof, and the colour
effect is very rich and striking.
But I must not be led into a disquisition upon
roofs further than in so far as they illustrate the
subject of composition of line and form, and from
147
GERMAN ROOFS
the painter's point of view they frequently do in a
very delightful and instructive way.
What, for instance, can be more varied and
charming than the compositions we constantly meet
with in the rich backgrounds of Albert Durer ?
Those steep barn roofs, and those quaint German
towns inclosed in walls with protecting towers —
nests of steep tiled gables of every imaginable de-
gree— which give so much character and interest
to his designs, as in the background of his copper-
plates " The Prodigal Son" and "St. Anthony" here
given. Their prototypes still exist here and there
in Germany, in such towns as Rothenburg, prac-
tically unchanged since the sixteenth century, and
give one an excellent idea of what such houses
were like. A visit there is like a leap back into
the Middle Ages. Every street is a varied and
interesting composition. No two houses are alike.
They were built by the citizens to really pass their
lives in. The town is strongly placed upon the
crest of a hill, with a river at its foot, and well for-
tified and protected by massive encircling walls
and towers and deep gates, which give it so strong
and picturesque a character, while the timber and
tile-roofed gallery for the warders still exists along
the inside of the walls. Such cities arose by the
strength of the social bond among men — the neces-
sity for mutual help in the maintenance of a higher
standard of life, and mutual protection against the
ravages of sinister powers.
Strong externally, internally they were made as
home-like and full of the varied delight of the eyes,
as if the people had reasoned, " Since we must live
close together in a small place, let us make it as
148
THE MEDIEVAL CITY
ROOF-LINES : ROTHENBURG.
delightful and romantic as we can." We know
that the idea of Paradise and the New Jerusalem
to the imagination of the Middle Ages was always
149
THE MEDIAEVAL CITY
the fair walled garden and the fenced city. The
painters embodied the idea of security and protec-
tion from the savage and destructive forces of
nature and man — a sanctuary of peace, a garden
of delight.
We have in modern times turned rather from the
city as a complete and beautiful thing, to the indi-
vidual home, and to the interior of that, and, in the
modern competitive search for the necessary straws
and sticks to make our individualist-domestic
composition of comfort and artistic completeness,
bowers are too often builtupon the ruins of others,or
are fair by reason of surrounding degradation. The
common collective comfort and delight of the eyes
is too often ignored, so that it comes about that, if
our modern cities possess any elements of beauty or
picturesqueness, it is rather owing to accidents and
to the transfiguring effects of atmosphere than to the
beauty or variety of architectural form and colour.
We have to seek inspiration among the fragments
of the dead past in monuments and art schools.
The modern development of the municipality
and extension of its functions may, indeed, do
something, as it has done, and is doing, something
to protect public health and further public educa-
tion ; but we have yet to wait for the full results,
and everything must finally depend upon the public
spirit and disinterestedness of the citizens, and in
matters of art upon a very decided but somewhat
rare and peculiar sympathy and taste, as well as
enthusiasm.
The absence of beauty of line, form, and propor-
tion from the external aspects of daily life in towns
has probably a greater effect than we are apt to
150
ORGANIC AND ACCIDENTAL BEAUTY
realize in deadening the imagination, and it cer-
tainly seems to produce a certain insensibility to
beauty of line and composition, since the percep-
tion must necessarily be blunted by being inured
to the commonplace and sordid. The instinct for
harmony of line and form becomes weakened, and
can only be slowly revived by long and careful
study in art, instead of finding its constant and
most vital stimulus in every street.
For all that, however, an eye trained to observe
and select may, even in the dullest and dingiest
street, find artistic suggestions, if not in the build-
ings, then in the life. And where there is life,
movement, humanity, there is sure to be character
and interest. Groups of children playing will give
us plenty of suggestions for figure composition.
Workpeople going to and from their work, the
common works going on in the street, the waggons
and horses, the shoal of faces, the ceaseless stream
of life — all these things, whether we are able to re-
produce them as direct illustrations of the life of our
time, or are moved only to select from them vivid
suggestions to give force to ideal conceptions,
should all be noted — photographed, as it were, in-
stantaneously upon the sensitive plate of the mind's
vision. We can only learn the laws of movement
by observing movement — the swing and poise of
the figure, the relation of the lines of limbs and
drapery to the direction of force and centre of
gravity, so important in composition. We must
constantly supplement our school and studio work
by these direct impressions of vivid life and move-
ment, and neglect no opportunity or despise no
source or suggestion.
FORMAL COMPOSITION
There are still in England to be found such old-
world corners as the quaint street of Canterbury
(p. 153), which forms an excellent study in the
composition of angular and vertical lines.
We may perceive that there are at least two
kinds of composition, which may be distinguished
as :
I. Formal.
II. Informal.
I. Under the head of Formal may be classed
all those systems of structural line with which I
started, and which are found either as leading
motives or fundamental plans and bases through-
out ornamental design. Yet even these may be
used in composition of figures and other forms
where the object is more or less formal and deco-
rative, as governing plans or controlling lines.
The radiating ribs of a fan, for instance, might
be utilized as the natural boundaries and inclosing
lines of a series of vertical figures following the
radiating lines. A strictly logical design of the
kind would be a series of figures with uplifted
arms, forming radiating lines from the shoulders,
somewhat in the position of Blake's well-known
and beautiful composition of the Morning Stars in
the Book of Job, already illustrated.
Using the overlapping vertical scale plan we
should get relative positions for a formal composi-
tion of three figures, although they need not neces-
sarily be formal in detail. A typical design of
three associated ideas treated emblematically
would be the most natural use of such an ar-
rangement— as Faith, Hope, and Charity ; Liberty,
Equality, Fraternity; Science, Art, and Indus-
^o
153
FORMAL COMPOSITION
try ; or the three goddesses Here, Pallas, and
Aphrodite, as choice and purpose might decide.
A semicircular scale plan would not only repeat
in a safe and sound manner, but would afford
suggestive shapes in which to throw designs of
figures, and could be effectively utilized either for
a wall or ceiling repeat.
The inclosure formed by two spiral lines gives
a graceful ornamental shape for a half-reclining
•figure ; while a series of floating or flying figures
linking their hands would be appropriately
governed by similar spiral lines, uniting them with
the meandering wave line (see illustration, p. 155).
Upon a series of semicircles or ellipses, alter-
nating horizontally, might be arranged a little
frieze of children with skipping ropes, or Amorini
with pendent garlands ; the up-and-down move-
ment in the former case being conveyed by a
variation, each alternate semicircle being struck
upwards. This would restore the emphatic wave
or spiral line, which always conveys the sense of
rhythmic movement in a design.
Such a line, vertically employed, will give again
a good plan for a series of seated figures, say em-
blematic of the Hours, where similarity of attitude
and type would be appropriate, while the emblems
and accessories might be varied. A severer treat-
ment would be suggested by making the controlling
line angular (see illustration, p. 1 56).
Such are a few illustrations of what I have
termed formal composition, in which the geo-
metric and structural plans of pure ornament or
ornamental line maybe utilized to combine, control,
or even suggest figure designs.
154
FORMAL COMPOSITION : FIGURE DESIGNS CONTROLLED BY
GEOMETRIC BOUNDARIES.
'55
FORMAL COMPOSITION : FIGURE DESIGNS CONTROLLED BY
GEOMETRIC BOUNDARIES.
INFORMAL COMPOSITION
II. While formal compositions, though natur-
ally falling into classes and types, may be varied
to a very great extent, when we come to informal
compositions the variations are unlimited, and a
vista of extraordinary and apparently endless
choice, invention, and selection opens out before
the designer, co-extensive with the variety of
nature herself.
In seeking harmonious and expressive composi-
tion in the pictorial direction the guides are much
less definite and secure. Individual feeling and
instinct, which must have an important influence
in all kinds of designing, are in this direction
paramount. Yet even here, if we look beneath the
apparent freedom and informality, we find certain
laws at work which seem to differ only in degree
from the more definite and constructive control of
.line which we have been considering. In the first
place, there are our direct impressions from nature;
and, secondly, our conscious aims and efforts to
'express an idea in our minds. We have the same
restricted and definite forms of language and
materials in each case — line, form, space, brushes,
pencil, colour, paper, canvas, or clay. We are
taken by some particular scene : the composition
of line and form at a particular spot attracts us
more than another. We do not stop as a rule to
ask why, since it usually takes all our time
and our best skill to get into shape what we are
seeking — and carry away with us an artistic record
of the place. We have seen that in the case of
certain natural structures, shells, leaves, flowers,
the fundamental structural lines are so beautiful
that they not only form ornament in themselves,
157
INFORMAL COMPOSITION
but furnish the basis for whole types and families
of ornament. When we look at a landscape,
putting aside for the moment all the surface
charms of colour and effect, and concentrating our
attention upon its lines of structures, we shall find
that it owes a great part of its beauty to the har-
monious relation of its leading lines, or to certain
I pleasant contrasts, or a certain impressiveness of
form and mass, and at the same time we shall
perceive that this linear expression is inseparable
from the sentiment or emotion suggested by that
particular scene.
A gentle southern landscape - - undulating
downs, and wandering sheep-walks ; the soft
rounded masses of the sheep upon smooth
cropped turf — all these are so many notes or
words in the language of line and form which go
to express the idea of pastoral life. They are in-
extricably bound up with inseparable associations
conveyed by such lines and forms. The un-
dulating lines of resting or dancing figures would
only give point, true emphasis, and variety, and a
note of contrast in the forms would serve to bring
out the general sentiment more strongly.
Substitute rugged rocks, swollen torrents, wind-
tossed trees and stormy skies, and all is changed.
Such things cannot be expressed without much
more emphatic lines and masses, and the use of
opposing angles and energetic curves of move-
ment which would be destructive of the sentiment
of peace, in other cases. Yet even then to convey
the expression of energy and rapid movement,
concerted groups of lines are none the less neces-
sary (see illustration, p. 159).
158
INFORMAL COMPOSITION: EXPRESSION OF (i) STORM AND
(2) CALM IN LANDSCAPE.
INFORMAL COMPOSITION
Such comparisons indicate not only that there
is a necessary association of ideas with certain
lines and forms, but also that certain relations
and associations of line of a similar character
are necessary to produce a harmonious composi-
tion, and one which conveys a definite and per-
vading sentiment or emotion, just as we saw that
the controlling lines of structural curves, spirals,
and angles require to be in relation, and to be re-
echoed by the character of the design they inclose,
or which is built upon them.
The same law holds true in figure composition.
The sense of repose and restfulness necessary to
sitting or reclining groups depends upon the gentle
declivities of the curves and their gradual descent
to the horizontal.
Draw a figure sitting rigid, tense, and alert,
and you destroy the sense of repose at once, and
you are obliged also to resort to angles, still more
emphatic where strong action is to be expressed ;
while to express continual or progressive move-
ment, a choice of associated lines of action in dif-
ferent stages of progress leading up to the cres-
cendo of the final one (as in a group of mowers)
would be necessary (see illustrations, p. 161). We
cannot, then, in any composition have too definite
a conception. We must, at any sacrifice of detail,
bring out the main expression and meaning.
Every group of figures must be in the strictest
relation to each other and to the central interest
or expression of the design. You cannot, for in-
stance, in a procession of figures, make your faces
turn all sorts of ways without stopping the onward
movement which is essential to the idea of a pro-
160
INFORMAL COMPOSITION : EXPRESSION OF REPOSE AND ACTION.
M
INFORMAL COMPOSITION
cession. This would not preclude variety, but the
general tendency must be in one direction. Every
line in a composition must lead up to the central
idea, and be subordinated or contributory to it
(see illustration, Nos. i and 2, p. 163).
The same with masses : you cannot put a
number of forms together without some sort of
relation, either of general character and contour
or some uniting line. We may learn this principle
from nature also. Look at a heap of broken stones
and debris, which in detail may contain all sorts of
varieties of form, as we find them tumbled down
a steep place, as the rocky bed of a mountain
stream, a heap of boulders upon a hillside, or the
debris from a quarry or mine; in each case the law
of gravity and the persistence of force working
together arrange the diverse forms in masses
controlled by the lines, which express the direc-
tion and degree of descent, and the pressure of
force. The same thing may be seen on any hilly
ground after heavy rain ; the scattered pebbles
are arranged in related groups, combined and
composed by the flow of miniature streams, which
channel the face of the ground and form hollows
for their reception (see Nos. 3 and 4, p. 163). The
force of the tides and currents upon the sea-shore
illustrates the same principle and affords us mag-
nificent lessons in composition, not only in the
delicate lines taken by the sculptured sand, but in
the harmonious grouping of masses of shingle and
shells, weeds and drift, arranged by the movement
of the waves.
So that we may see that the principles of har-
monious composition are not the outcome of merely
162
SKETCHES TO SHOW (13 HOW THE
OPA\OV£MENT (K)A PROCESSION \S
Too c«fc£AT ADivefcsrry nw THE
OF THE HEADS
(O) MOW THE PROCESSIONAL. MOVEMENT iS
ACCELERATED BY UM»TV OF DIRECTION
TME ARRANCEA^MT OF THE
(3)
(l) AND (2) MOVEMENT IN A PROCESSION,
(3) LINES LEFT BY A WATERCOURSE,
(4) LINES GOVERNING FALLEN DEBRIS FROM A QUARRY.
163
PRINCIPLES OF HARMONIOUS COMPOSITION
capricious fancy or pedantic rule, but are illus-
trated throughout the visible world by the laws and
forces of the material universe. It is for the artist
to observe and apply them in his own work of
re-creation.
164
CHAPTER VII
Of the Relief of Form— Three Methods— Contrast— Light
and Shade, and Modelling — The Use of Contrast and Planes in
Pattern Designing— Decorative Relief — Simple Linear Contrast
—Relief by Linear Shading — Different Emphasis in relieving
Form by Shading Lines — Relief by means of Light and Shade
alone without Outline — Photographic Projection — Relief by
different Planes and Contrasts of Concave and Convex Surfaces
in Architectural Mouldings— Modelled Relief — Decorative Use
of Light and Shade, and different Planes in Modelling and
Carving — Egyptian System of Relief Sculpture — Greek and
Gothic Architectural Sculpture, influenced by Structural and
Ornamental Feeling — Sculptural Tombs, Medals, Coins, Gems
— Florentine Fifteenth-century Reliefs — Desiderio di Settignano.
WE come now to the consideration of the
various means and methods of expressing
relief in line and form.
We may define a form in outline and give it
different qualities of expression by altering the
quality and consistency of our outline, and we may
obtain very different kinds of decorative effect by
the use of lines of various degrees of thickness or
thinness ; but if we want to give it force and colour,
and to distinguish it from its background more em-
phatically, we must add to our outline.
There are three principal methods or systems of
giving relief by adding to our outline.
One is the method of giving relief to form by
contrasts of tone, colour, or tint.
165
THREE METHODS OF EXPRESSING RELIEF
Another by means of the expression of light and
shade : and the third by means of modelling in
relief.
Now, still keeping to expression by means of line,
the three arms I have sketched (p. 167) illustrate :
(i) the form in outline alone; (2) the contrast
method ; and (3) the light and shade method. The
three pots underneath illustrate the same three
stages in a simpler manner.
In number one we see the outline defining the
form pure and simple : in number two the form is
relieved by a half-tone formed of diagonal lines,
forming a plane or background behind it. The arm
is still further relieved by the dark drapery. Num-
ber three shows the relief carried further by lines
expressive of the modelling of the arm and the
rounding of the pot, and also by cast shadows from
the forms.
The system of expressing relief I have termed
relief by contrast includes two kinds of contrast :
there are the contrasts of line and form, and there
are the contrasts of planes of tone or tint and local
colour. We may consider that the contrast method
covers generally all forms of pattern and certain
kinds of pictorial design. The method of express-
ing relief by means of line covers generally all
forms of design in black and white, graphic sketch-
ing, pen-drawing, and work with the point of all
kinds.
Taking the principle of contrast as applied to
pattern design, we can, even within the limited
range of black and white and half- tint (as expressed
by lines), get a considerable amount of decorative
effect. In the first place by bringing out our pat-
166
THE RELIEF OF FORM : (l) BY OUTLINE, (2) BY CONTRAST,
(3) BY LIGHT AND SHADE.
167
OF THE USE OF CONTRAST AND PLANES
tern, previously outlined, upon a black ground (as
in Nos. i and 2, p. 169), increasing the richness of
effect, and getting a second plane by treating the
lower part in an open tint of line.
Simple contrasts of dark upon light or light upon
dark are effective, and sufficient for many purposes,
such as borders (as in Nos. 2 and 3, p. 169).
When a lighter kind of relief and effect is re-
quired, the recurring forms in a border are often
sufficiently emphasized by a tint of open lines :
movement and variety being given by making them
follow the minor curves of the successive forms, as
in this instance (No 4, p. 169) the movement of
the water is suggested behind the fish.
The relation of the plain ground-work to the
figure of the pattern is also an important point ;
indeed the plain parts of the pattern, or the inter-
stices and intervals of the pattern, are as essential
to the pattern as the figured parts.
In designs intended for various processes of
manufacture, such as printed or woven textiles,
wall-papers, etc., where blocks or rollers are used
to repeat the pattern, the extent of plain in pro-
portion to figured parts must be governed in some
measure by the practicable size of the repeat : but
within certain limits great variety of proportion is
possible.
A simple but essentially decorative principle is
to preserve a certain equality between the figured
masses and the ground masses. The leaf patterns
(Nos. 6 and 7, p. 169) consist simply of the repeti-
tion and reversal of a single element. An emphatic
effect is obtained by bringing the leaves out black
upon a white ground (as in No. 6), while a flatter
1 68
RELIEF OF FORM AND LINE IN PATTERN DESIGN BY MEANS
OF CONTRAST AND THE USE OF PLANES.
OF THE USE OF CONTRAST AND PLANES
and softer effect is the result of throwing them
upon a plane of half-tint expressed by horizontal
lines, with a similar effect of relief to that which
would be given by the warp, if the pattern were
woven.
For larger surfaces, greater repose and dignity
in pattern may be obtained by a greater proportion
of the repeat being occupied by the ground (as in
No. 5, p. 169).
Indeed we may consider as a general principle
that the larger the interspaces of the ground, plane,
or field of the pattern, the lighter in tint they should
be, or the necessary flatness is apt to be lost. Re-
lief in pattern design may be said to be adding
interest and richness without losing the flatness
and repose of the design as a whole. When pattern
and ground are fairly equally balanced in quantity
the ground may be rich and dark, and darkest as
the interstices, where the ground is shown, become
less. The figure of a pattern relieved as light upon
a dark plane, as a rule, requires to be fuller in form
than dark-figuring upon a light ground.
In decorative work the use of contrast in the
relief of parts of a design is often useful and effec-
tive, as, for instance, the dark shading or treatment
in black or flat tone of the alternating under side
of a turn-over leaf-border.
The decorative value of this principle is recog-
nized by heraldic designers in the treatment of the
mantling of the helmet, which in earlier times is
treated simplyas a hangingorflying strip of drapery
with a lining of a different colour, by which it is
relieved as it hangs in simple spiral folds. This
ornamental element became developed by the de-
170
DECORATIVE RELIEF
signers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries into
elaborate scroll designs springing from the circlet
of the helmet and surrounding the shield : but the
principle of the turned-up lining remained, often
variegated and enriched with heraldic patterns
(see illustrations, pp. 172, I73).1
The principle, too, of counterchange in heraldry
answers to our principle of relief by contrast, and
though its chief charm lies in its ornamental range
of form and colour combinations, itcan be expressed
in black and white, and it remains a universal
principle throughout decorative art. The decor-
ative effect and charm of the relief of large and
bold forms upon rich and delicate diapers is also
an important resource of the designer. The monu-
mental art of the Middle Ages affords multitudes
of examples of this principle in ornamental treat-
ment. The miniaturist of the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries constantly relieved his groups of figures
upon a diapered ground. The architectural sculp-
tor relieved the broad masses of flowing drapery
and the bold projection of his effigies and recum-
bent figures by delicately chiselled diapers upon
the surface of the wall behind them. This treat-
1 The increased importance given to the mantling in later
times may have been due to the disappearance of the housings
of the knight's horse and his surcoat, which originally displayed
his arms and colours. The mantling of later times displayed
the heraldic colours of the knight, when, being clad in plate
armour, there was no other means of displaying them except
on the shield. Decoratively, of course, the mantling is of great
value to the heraldic designer, enabling him to form much more
graceful compositions, to combine diverse and rigid elements
with free and flowing lines and masses, and to fill panels with
greater richness and effect, whether carved or painted, or both.
171
ASSEV
EARJLY i^K CENTURY
DECORATIVE RELIEF : COUNTERCHANGE, TREATMENT OF MANT-
LING, FOURTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES.
172
PLATE .
CHAPEL.
AvvSA.W6M.Vj ^wt,
DECORATIVE RELIEF : TREATMENT OF MANTLING.
173
USE OF DIAPERED BACKGROUNDS
ment may frequently be seen in the recessed
tombs of the fourteenth century.
The incisor of memorial brasses, again, more
especially in continental examples, shows a fond-
ness for the same principle. The long vertical
lines of drapery of ladies and ecclesiastics, the
broad masses of the heraldic surcoat, or armour of
the knights, the rich and heavy furred gowns of
the burghers, are often relieved upon beautiful
diapered or arabesque grounds, generally embody-
ing some heraldic device, motto, or emblem of the
person or family whose tomb it ornaments. Such
decoration is strictly linear, yet within its own
limits, and perhaps because of them, we find in
this province of design extremely admirable work,
no less for delineation of character and decorative
treatment than for ornamental invention controlled
by strict economy of line.
This brings us to the consideration of our second
method of relief by means of line.
Take any simple allied elements to form a re-
peating pattern, say spiral shells, place them at
certain rhythmic intervals, and we can unite and
at the same time give them relief by filling in the
ground by a series of waved lines to suggest the
ribbed sand. Add a few dots to soften and vary
the effect, and we get a pattern of a certain
balance and consistency (No. i, p. 177).
With the more varied and complex floral form,
but treated in a very abstract way, placing the
daisies in a line, horizontally, and reversing the
sprig for the alternate row, we have another
motive, which is connected and steadied as well
as relieved by the suggestion of grass blades in
174
RELIEF UPON A DIAPERED GROUND : BRASS OF MARTIN
DE VISCH, BRUGES, 1452.
RELIEF OF FORM BY LINEAR SHADING
groups of three slightly radiated vertical strokes
(No. 2, p. 177). A pattern of two elements,
again, may be formed in a still more simple way
by linear contrast, as in No. 3, where the pyra-
midal trees are formed by a continuous serpentine
stroke of the pen terminating in a spiral stem.
The diagonal arrangement of the trees produces a
chequer, the intervals of which can be varied by
the contrasting black masses of the birds.
In graphic drawing, lines to express forms in
the relief of light and shade are often needed to
give additional force even where no great degree
of realism is desired. A tint formed by horizontal
lines is sufficient to relieve a face from the back-
ground and give it solidity, while local colour may
be given to the hair, and at the same time serve
to relieve the leaves of a wreath encircling the
head (see illustration, p. 178).
The rich effect of clustered apples growing
among their leaves could hardly be suggested
without the use of lines expressive of light and
shade, the interstices of the deepest shade run-
ning into solid black (p. 178). In adding lines in
this kind of way to give relief or extra richness
or force, the draughtsman is really designing a
system of lines upon his outline basis, which may
have quite as decorative a quality as the outline
itself. At the same time nothing is more char-
acteristic of the artist than the way in which such
lines are used, and of course the choice of direction
and arrangement of such lines will make all the
difference in the effect of the drawing.
Where the object is to express the figure in
broad masses of light and shade, the use of a
RELIEF IN PATTERN DESIGN BY MEANS OF SIMPLE LINEAR
CONTRASTS.
177 N
DIAGONAL SHADING
series of diagonal lines is an effective, and prob-
ably the most ready and rapid, method when
RELIEF BY ADDING SHADING LINES TO OUTLINE.
working with the pen (see p. 179). This system
of expressing the broad surfaces of shade was
much used by the Italian masters of the Renais-
1/8
RELIEF OF FORM BY DIAGONAL SHADING.
179
EMPHASIS
sance in their rapid pen sketches and studies of
figures, and a certain breadth and style is given
to their drawings owing in part to the simplicity
of this linear treatment.
No doubt the simpler the system of line
adopted in giving relief to figures the better, if
the particular expression aimed at is accomplished,
and, as a general rule, we should endeavour to
get the necessary force and depth without the use
of cross-line, or many different directions of line
in shading a figure : but, given any power of
draughtsmanship, the individuality of the artist is
bound to come in, and it is not likely, nor is it to
be desired, that any two artists in line should give
exactly the same account of natural fact, or repro-
duce the images in their minds in the same forms,
any more than we should expect two writers to
express their ideas in the same terms.
The kind and degree of emphasis upon different
parts, the selection of moment or fact, would all
naturally make considerable differences in the
treatment. The three sketches of the skirt
dancer are given as instances of the different
effects and expression to be obtained in rendering
the same subject (p. i&i).
In A the broad relief of the white dress against
the tones of the floor and background, and the
darker note of the hair, are the facts chiefly dwelt
upon. In B the form of the figure is brought out
in broad light and shade and cast shadow, and the
dress relieved by radiating folds. In c quicker
movement is given, the lines of the successive
wave-shaped folds radiating spirally from the
shoulders being the chief means of conveying this,
1 80
DIFFERENT METHOD AND DIFFERENT EMPHASIS IN RELIEVING
FORM BY SHADING LINES.
EMPHASIS
while the head and arms are thrown into strong
relief against a dark background, the cast shadow
being of a lighter tone.
The direction of line used in relieving forms,
and expressing modelling and details, must depend
much upon individual taste and feeling as well as
knowledge of form. The element of beauty of
design also comes in, and the question between
this and force or literalness — the difference be-
tween a study or direct transcript from nature,
and a design with a purely ornamental aim, or a
composition directed mainly to the expression of
a particular idea or emotion.
Such considerations will ultimately determine
the choice and use of line, the degree of relief and
emphasis, for these and the direction of the line
itself are the syllables and the words which will
convey the purport of the work lo the mind of the
beholder.
Study of the masters of line — Du'rer, Titian,
Mantegna, Holbein — will inform us as to its
capacities and limitations. The limitations, too,
of method and material will be a powerful factor
in the determination of style in the use of line and
in the economy of its use.
The bold firm line suitable to the facsimile
woodcut, the broad and simple treatment of line
with solid black useful in the plank-cut line block
to be used with colour blocks, the comparatively
free and unconditioned pen-drawing for the sur-
face-printed process block — all these will finally
give a certain character to our work beyond our
own idiosyncrasies in the use of the pen or the
brush.
182
ALBERT DURER'S PRINCIPLE IN THE TREATMENT OF DRAPERY:
FROM THE WOODCUT IN THE " LIFE OF THE VIRGIN "
SERIES.
183
EMPHASIS
Useful things may be learned by the way, such
as Albert Dtirer's principle of giving substance to
his figures and details, more especially seen in his
treatment of drapery, when the lines run into solid
black and express the deeper folds and give em-
phasis and solidity to the figure (p. 183). The
reproductions here given of sketches of drapery
ALBERT DURER : PEN-DRAWING.
the
by Filippino Lippi and Raphael also shov
same principle.
A figure or object of any kind, seen in full light
and shade, is relieved at any of its edges either as
dark against light, or as light against dark, and we
recognize it as a solid form in this way; the bound-
aries of natural light and shade defining it, and
projecting it from the background upon the vision.
There may be infinite modulations, of course, be-
184
FILIPPINO LIPPi: STUDY* OF DRAPERY.
185
EMPHASIS
tween the light part, the half-tones, and the darkest
parts ; but this broad principle governs all work
representing light and shade.
RAPHAEL I STUDIES OF DRAPERY.
It is, in fact, the principle of the relief of form
represented upon a plane surface.
1 86
RELIEF BY LIGHT AND SHADE ALONE
If the draughtsman's object be to represent the
appearance of a figure or any object in full natural
light and shade with the pen or other point, he
could do so without using outline at all, but by
simply observing this principle and defining the
boundaries of light on dark or half-tone in their
proper masses and relations. The pen sketch of
the man with the hoe (p. 188) is intended to illus-
trate this method.
There is also the method of representing form
in relief by means of working with white line only
upon a dark ground, the modelling and planes ol
surface being entirely expressed in this way (as in
A, p. 189). This may be termed drawing by means
of light, and may be contrasted with the opposite
method of working by means of black line only
on a light ground, or drawing by means of shade
(as in B, p. 189).
Yet another method, and one in which the effect
of relief can be obtained more readily and rapidly,
perhaps, is by working on a half-toned paper, draw-
ing in the form with pencil, chalk, or brush, block-
ing in the darker shadows and heightening the
highest lights with touches of white. These white
touches, however, should be strictly limited to the
highest lights. This method is represented by
the half-tone blocks used in this book, those which
were taken from drawings made on brown paper
and -touched with white.
The definition of form by means of light is strictly
the principle of the photograph, whichcomprehends
and illustrates its complementary of relief by means
of shade, and I think it is due to the influence of
the photograph that modern black-and-white artists
RELIEF BY MEANS OF LIGHT AND SHADE ALONE, IN PEN-
DRAWING WITHOUT OUTLINE.
I 88
RELIEF OF FORM : (A) BY WHITE LINE ONLY ON DARK GROUND,
AND (B) BY BLACK LINE ONLY ON LIGHT GROUND.
I89
THE PRINCIPLE OF THE PHOTOGRAPH
have so often worked on these principles. The
drawings of Frederick Walker and Charles Keene
may be referred to as examples. I shall, however,
hope to return to this branch of the subject later.
So far we have been considering the relief of
form by means of line. We now come to what
may be termed the relief of form by actual form
and plane, or modelling in actual light and shade,
as in architecture and sculptors' and carvers' work.
Then relief is gained by the contrast of actually
different planes, forms, surfaces, and textures. The
simplest illustrations of the principles of modelled
relief are to be found in architectural mouldings,
by means of which buildings are relieved and en-
riched, and important structural or functional parts
are emphasized, as in cornices and ribs of vaults,
arches, and openings.
Place a concave moulding side by side with a
convex one either horizontally or vertically, and a
certain pleasant effect of contrasting light and shade
is the result, reminding one of the recurring con-
cave and convex of the rolling waves of the sea
(A, p. 191).
A series of flat planes of different widths and at
different levels also produces a pleasant kind of
relief useful in a picture frame or the jamb of a
door (B).
All architectural mouldings might be said to be
modifications or combinations of the principles
illustrated by these two.
Very different feeling may be expressed in
mouldings, and if we compare the two types, the
classical and the Gothic, the comparatively broad
and simple effect of the former (c, D, E, F, G) con-
190
(GR£EK & ROMAN) (QOTHICJ
RELIEF IN ARCHITECTURAL MOULDINGS.
RELIEF IN ARCHITECTURAL MOULDINGS
trasts with the richness and variety and the stronger
effect of light and shade, produced by deep under-
cutting, in the latter (H, i, j, K).
The Romans, however, produced rich and highly
ornate effects in the use of these types of mouldings,
as they reappeared in the Corinthian order, the
ovolo cut into the egg and dart, with the Astralagus
beneath, the Cyma recta above the brackets of the
cornice casting a bold shadow, and both in the
cornice and the hollow beneath the dentils enriched
with carving, as seen in the splendid fragment of
the Forum of Nerva.
When we pass to the more complex problems
of figure modelling and sculpture, it is but carrying
on and developing the same principle of the con-
trast of planes, of the relief of plane upon plane,
of forms upon one plane, to forms upon forms in
many planes. From the contrast of bead and
hollow we come to consider the contrast between
the rounded limb and the sinuous folds of drapery ;
from the rhythm of the acanthus scroll we turn to
the less obvious but none the less existing rhythm
of the sculptural frieze.
Line, we may say, controls the modeller's and
sculptor's composition, but form and its treatment
in light and shade give him his means of ornament.
The delicate contours of faces and limbs contrasted
with the spiral and radiating folds of drapery, or
rich clusters of leaves and fruits, the forms of
animals and the wings of birds— these are his de-
corative resources.
The early stages of sculpture in relief may be
seen in the monumental work of ancient Egypt.
Simple incised work appears to have been the
TQ2
ROMAN TREATMENT OF CORINTHIAN ORDER, FORUM OF
NERVA, ROME.
193 o
EGYPTIAN RELIEFS
first stage, and the forms - afterwards slightly
modelled or rounded at the edges into the hollow
of the sunk outline.
Large figures and tables of hieroglyphic inscrip-
tion were thus cut upon vast mural surfaces, and
carried across the joints of the masonry, without
disturbing the flatness and repose of the wall sur-
face (p. 195). The Egyptians, indeed, seem to
have treated their walls more as if they were books
for record and statement, symbol and hieroglyphic.
Messrs. Perrot and Chipiez, in their " History
of Ancient Art in Egypt," speak of three processes
in the treatment of Egyptian reliefs (vol. ii., p.
284) :
1. That followed by the Greeks, in which the
figures are left standing out from a smooth bed,
sometimes slightly hollowed near the contours
(see illustration, p. 196).
2. Where the figures are modelled in relief in
a sunk hollow, from an inch to one and a half
inch deep.
3. Where the surface of the figures and the bed
or field of relief are kept on one level (see illustra-
tion, p. 1 96), the contours indicated by hollow lines
cut into the stone ; very little modelling, little more
than silhouette, in which the outline is shown by
a hollow instead of by the stroke of a pencil or
brush.
One would be inclined to reverse the order of
these three processes, on the supposition that No.
3 was the earliest process, and that it arose, as I
have conjectured, from the practice of representing
forms by incised lines only.
There is certainly a strong family likeness as to
194
EGYPTIAN SYSTEM OF SCULPTURED RELIEF: THEBES.
195
GREEK RELIEF
ELEU5IS.
196
GOTHIC SCULPTURE
method between the Egyptian reliefs and the As-
syrian, the Persian, and the archaic Greek ; and
there is a far greater difference in treatment be-
tween archaic Greek relief sculpture and the work
of the Phidian period than between the archaic
work of the three races named.
The strictly mural and decorative conditions
which governed ancient sculpture no doubt gave to
Greek sculpture in its perfection a certain dignity,
simplicity, and restraint, and also accounted in a
great measure for that rhythmic control of invisible
structural and ornamental line which asserts itself
in such works as the Pan-Athenaic frieze. It was
strictly slab sculpture, and became part of the
surface of the wall.
The structural andornamental feeling alsoasserts
itself strongly in Gothic sculpture, owing to its close
association with architecture, as, when it was not
an intregal part of the structure, it was always an
essential part of the expression of the building,
and it was this which controlled its treatment de-
coratively, in its scale and its system and degree of
relief.
In the porches of the Gallo-Roman churches of
France of the twelfth century, the figures occupy-
ing the place of shafts became columnar in treat-
ment, the sinuous formalized draperies wrapped
around the elongated figures, or falling in vertical
folds, as in the figures in the western door of
Chartres Cathedral (p 199). The lines of the de-
sign of the sculptured tympanum were strictly re-
lated to the space, and the degree and treatment
of the relief clearly felt in regard to the architec-
tural effect (p. 201).
'97
ARCHITECTURAL INFLUENCE
In the sculptured tombs of the Middle Ages,
with their recumbent figures and heraldic enrich-
ments, again, we see this architectonic sense influ-
encing the treatment of form and relief, as these
monuments were strictly architectural decorations,
often incorporating its forms and details, and often
built into the structure of the church or cathedral
itself, as in the case of the recessed and canopied
tombs of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
As sculptures became detached from the building
and wall, and appeared in full relief in the round,
though still, as it were, carrying a reminiscence of
their origin with them in the shape of the moulded
pedestal, architectural control became less and less
felt, statues in consequence being less and less
related to their surroundings. The individual feel-
ing of the sculptor or the traditions of his school
and training alone influenced his treatment, until
we get the incidental and dramatic or sentimental
isolated figure or group of modern days.
It is noteworthy, however, that even in the
smaller works of the modeller, carver, or sculptor
of the Middle Ages or the early Renaissance, a
sense of decorative fitness and structural sense is
always present. We see it in the carved ornaments
of seats and furniture, in the design and treatment
of coins and seals and gems and medals. These
latter from the time of the ancient Greeks afford
beautiful examples of the decorative treatment of
relief in strict relation to the object and purpose.
The skill and taste of the Greeks seemed to have
been largely inherited by the artists of the earlier
Italian Renaissance, such as Pisano, whose famous
medal of the Malatesta of Rimini affords a splendid
198
CHARTRP:S CATHEDRAL: CARVING ON THE WEST FRONT
199
MEDALS AND COINS
instance not only of the treatment of the portrait
and subject on the reverse perfectly adapted to its
method and purpose, but also of the artistic use of
lettering as a decorative feature (see p. 203).
The treatment and relief of figures and heads
upon the plane surfaces of metals and coins, the
composition controlled by the circular form, have
always been a fine test of both modelling and
decorative skill and taste. Breadth is given by a
flatness in the treatment of successive planes of
low relief, which rise to their highest projection
from the ground, in the case of a head in profile,
about its centre. The delicate perception of the
relation of the planes of surface is important, as
well as the decorative effect to be obtained by
arrangement of the light and shade masses and
the contrast of textures, such as hair and the
folds of drapery, to the smooth contours of
faces and figures, and the rectangular forms of
lettering.
In gems we see the use made of the concave
ground, which gives an effective relief to the
figure design in convex upon it. Bolder projec-
tion of prominent parts are here necessary in con-
trast to the retiring planes, the work being on so
small a scale, and also in view of its seal-like char-
acter ; for, of course, it is the method of producing
form by incision, and modelling by cutting and
hollowing out, that gives the peculiar character to
gems and seals ; and it is in forming human figures
that the building up of the form by a series of
ovals, spoken of in a previous chapter, becomes
really of practical value : the method of hollowing
the stone or metal in cutting the gem or making a
200
DESIDERIO DI SETTIGNANO
die and the character of the tool leading naturally
in that direction.
Perhaps the most delicate and beautiful kind of
sculptured or modelled relief is to be found in the
work of the Florentine school of the fifteenth
century, more especially that of Donatello and
Desiderio di Settignano, who seem indeed to have
caught the feeling and spirit of the best Greek
period, with fresh inspiration and suggestion from
nature and the life around them, as well as an
added charm of grace and sweetness.
It is difficult to imagine that marble carving in
low relief can be carried to greater perfection than
it is in the well-known small relief by Desiderio
di Settignano of the " Madonna and Child," now
in the Italian Court of the South Kensington
Museum. The delicate yet firmly chiselled faces
and hands, the smooth surfaces of the flesh, and
the folds of drapery, emerging from, or sinking
into, the varied planes of the ground, for refine-
ment of feeling and treatment seem almost akin
to the art of the painter in the tenderness of their
expression.
202
MEDALS OF THE LORDS OF MANTUA, CESENA, AND FERRARA,
BY VITTORE PISANO OF VERONA (MIDDLE OF THE FIF-
TEENTH CENTURY).
CHAPTER VIII
Of the Expression of Relief in Line-drawing — Graphic Aim
and Ornamental Aim — Superficial Appearance and Constructive
Reality — Accidents and Essentials— Representation and Sug-
gestion of Natural Form in Design — The Outward Vision and
the Inner Vision.
I HAVE already said that when we add lines
or tints of shadow, local colour or surface, to
an outline drawing, we are seeking to express
form in a more complete way than can be done in
outline alone. These added lines or tints give
what we call relief. That is their purpose and
function, whether by that added relief we wish to
produce an ornamental effector simply to approach
nearer to the full relief of nature, for of course the
degrees of relief are many.
What may be called the natural principle of
relief — that system of light and shade by which a
figure or any solid object is perceived as such by
the eye — consists in each part of the form being
thrown into more or less contrast by appearing as
dark on light upon its background, more especially
at its edges. A figure wholly dark, say in black
drapery, appearing against a light ground, might
be supposed to be flat if no cast shadow was
seen ; the same with the reverse — a light figure
upon a dark ground— except that in this latter
204
RELIEF IN LINE-DRAWING
case, unless the light was very level and flat, a
certain concentration of light upon the highest
parts, or indicating a modulation of shadow in
interstices, might betray its solidity (see p. 206).
But if we place a figure so that the light falls
from one side, we perceive that it at once stands
out in bold relief in broad- planes of light and
shade, further emphasized by cast shadows (p.
207).
It would be possible to represent or to express
a figure or object so lighted by means of laying in
the modulations and planes of shadow only, or by
means of adding the light only on a toned ground.
In sketching in black and white, it is a good plan
to accustom oneself to complete as one goes along,
as far as may be, putting in outline and shadow
together ; but this needs a power of direct draw-
ing and a correctness of eye only to be gained by
continual practice. A slight preliminary basis of
light lines to indicate the position and proportions,
and yet not strong enough to need rubbing out,
is also a good method for those who do not feel
certain enough for the absolutely direct method of
drawing.
Now in drawing, as I think I have pointed out
before, no less than in all art, there are two main
governing principles of working which may be
distinguished.
/ I. The graphic aim.
II. The ornamental or decorative aim.
The graphic aim — the endeavour to represent a
form exactly as it appears — a power always valu-
able to acquire whatever may be our ultimate
purpose, leaves the draughtsman great freedom
205
THE TWO PRINCIPLES OF CONTRAST IN BLACK AND WHITE.
2O6
TREATMENT OF THE SAME FIGURE
207
IN LIGHT AND SHADE.
THE GRAPHIC AIM
in the choice and use of line, or other means of
obtaining relief, local tint, and tone.
In line- work the broad relief of the flat tones of
shadow may be expressed in lines approaching" '
the straight, diagonally sloping from right to left,
or from left to right, as seems most natural to the
action of the hand.
The quality of our lines will depend upon the
quality we are seeking to express. We shall be
led to vary them in seeking to express other
characteristics, such as textures and surfaces.
In drawing fur or feathers, for instance, we
should naturally vary the quality and direction of
line, using broken lines and clots for the former,
and flowing smooth fine lines for the latter, while
extra force and relief would be gained by throwing
them up upon solid black grounds. Solid black,
also, to represent local colour, or material such as
velvet, is often valuable as a contrast in black and
white line-drawing, giving a richness of effect not to
be obtained in any other way (see No. 2, p. 213).
Its value was appreciated by the early German
and Italian book-illustrators, and in our own time
has been used almost to excess by some of our
younger designers, who have been largely in-
fluenced by Hokusai and other Japanese artists,
who are always skilful in the use of solid blacks.
In line-drawing a very useful principle to ob-
serve, to give solidity to figures and objects, is to
let one's lines — say of drapery or shadow — run
into solid blacks in the deepest interstices of the
forms, as when folds of drapery are wrapped
about a figure, or in the deeper folds themselves
(No. i, p. 213).
208
EXPRESSION OF FORM BY LIGHT AND SHADE : (l) LIGHT AND
SHADE WITHOUT OUTLINE; (2) LIGHT AND SHADE ENFORCED
BY OUTLINE.
209 P
THE ORNAMENTAL AIM
I have spoken of the graphic and the orna-
mental aims as distinct, and so they may for
practical purposes be regarded ; although in some
cases it is possible to combine a considerable
amount of graphic force with decorative effect,
and even in purely graphic art there should
always be the controlling influence of the sense
of composition which must be felt throughout all
forms of art.
For the simplest ornamental function, however,
very little graphic drawing is needed, over arid
above the very essential power of definition by
pure outline, and feeling for silhouette ; but a
sense for the relief of masses upon a ground or
field, and of the proportions and relations of lines
and masses or distribution of quantities, is essential.
Now an ornamental effect may be produced by
the simple repetition of some form defined in
outline arranged so as to fall into a rhythmic
series of lines.
A series of birds upon a plan of this kind, for
instance, would form a frieze on simple bordering
in abstract line alone, and might be quite sufficient
for some purposes. The same thing would be
capable of more elaborate treatment and different
effect by relieving the birds upon a darker ground,
by defining the details of their forms more, or by
alternating them in black or white, or by adopt-
ing the simple principle of counterchange (see
P- 2I5)-
Flowers or figures would be capable of the
same simple and abstract treatment; and almost
any form in nature, reduced to its simplest ele-
ments of recurring line and mass, and rhythmic-
210
LINEAR EXPRESSION OF FEATURES, FEATHERS AND FUR
NOTES FROM NATURE.
21 I
THE ORNAMENTAL AIM
ally disposed, would give us distinct decorative
motives.
It is quite open to the designer to select his
lines and forms straight from nature, and, bearing
in mind the necessity for selection of the best
ornamental elements, for a certain simplification,
and the rhythmical treatment before mentioned, it
is good to do so, as the work is more likely to
have a certain freshness than if some of the well-
known historic forms of ornament are used again.
We may, however, learn much from the orna-
mental use of these forms, and use similar forms
as the boundaries of the shape of our pattern units
and masses.
It is good practice to take a typical shape such
as the Persian radiating flower or pine-apple, and
use it as the plan for quite a different structure in
detail, taking some familiar English flower as our
motive. The same with the Indian and Persian
palmette type. It is also desirable, as before
pointed out, to draw sprays within formal bound-
aries for ornamental use. By such methods we
may not only learn to appreciate the ornamental
value of such forms, but by such adaptation and
re-combination produce new varieties of ornament
(see p. 2 1 7).
We may perceive how J'stinct are the two aims
as between simple grapiJc drawing, or delinea-
tion and what we call design, or conscious ar-
rangements of line or form. While planes of relief,
varied form and surface, values of light and shade,
and accidental characteristics are rather the ob-
ject with the graphic draughtsman, typical form
and structure, and recurring line and mass, are
212
(2)
SKETCHES TO ILLUSTRATE (l) THE GRAPHIC AND (2) THE
DECORATIVE TREATMENT OF DRAPED FIGURES.
2T3
SELECTION
sought for by the ornamentist. Both series of
facts, or qualities, or characteristics, are in nature.
Judicious selection, however, is the test of
artistic treatment ; selection, that is, with a view
to the aim and scope of the work. The truth of
superficial appearance or accidental aspect is one
sort of truth : the truth of the actual constructive
characteristics — be they of figure, flower, or land-
scape— is another. Both belong to the thing we
see — to the object we are drawing ; but we shall
dwell upon one truth or set of truths rather than
the other, in accordance with our particular artistic
aim, though, whatever this may be, and in what-
ever direction it may lead us, we shall find that
selection of some sort will be necessary.
In making studies, however pure and simple,
the object of which is to discover facts and to learn
mastery of form, our aim should be to get as much
truth as we can, truth of structure as well as of
aspect. But these (as far as we can make them)
exhaustive studies should be accompanied or
followed by analytical studies made from different
points of view and for different purposes.
Studies, for instance, made with a view to ar-
rangements of line only — to get the characteristic
and beautiful lines of a figure, a momentary atti-
tude, the lines of a flower, or a landscape: studies
with a view, solely, to the understanding of struc-
ture and form, or again, with the object of seizing
the broad relations of light and shade, or tone and
colour — all are necessary to a complete artistic
education of the eye.
If we are drawn as students rather towards the
picturesque and graphic side of art, we shall prob-
214
DECORATIVE TREATMENT OF BIRDS.
ACCIDENTS AND ESSENTIALS
ably look for accidents of line and form more than
what I should call the essentials, or typical line
and form, which are the most valuable to the
decorative designer.
In both directions some compact or compro-
mise with nature is necessary in any really artistic
re-presentation.
The painter and the sculptor often seek as
complete representation as possible, and what may
be called complete representation is within the
range of their resources. Yet unless some in-
dividual choice or feeling impresses the work of
either kind it is not a re-presentation, but becomes
an imitation, and therefore inartistic.
The decorative designer and ornamentist seek
to suggest^ rather than to^re-present, though the
decorator's suggestion of natural form, taking
only enough to suit or express the particular orna-
mental purpose, must be considered also as a
re-presentation. How much, or how little, he will
take of actual nature must depend largely upon
his resources, his object, and the limitations of his
material — the conditions of his work in short ; but
his range may be as wide as from the flat sil-
houetted forms of stencils or simple inlays to the
highly-wrought mural painting.
Design motive, individual conception and senti-
ment, apart from material, must, of course, always
affect the question of the choice and degree of
representation of nature. The painter will some-
times feel that lie only wants to suggest forms,
such as figures or buildings, half veiled in light
and atmosphere, colours and forms in twilight, or
half lost in luminous depths of shadow.
216
FLORAL DESIGNS UPON TYPICAL INCLOSING SHAPES OF INDIAN
AND PERSIAN ORNAMENT.
DANCING FIGURE WITH THE GOVERNING LINES OF THE
MOVEMENT.
2l8
LINES OF FLORAL GROWTH AND STRUCTURE : LILY AND ROSE.
219
THE OUTWARD VISION AND INNER VISION
The decorative designer will sometimes want to
emphasize forms with the utmost force and realism
at his command, as in some crisp bit of carving or
emphatic pattern, to give point and relief in his
scheme of quantities.
There is no hard-and-fast rule in art, only
general principles, constantly varied in practice,
from which all principles spring, and into which,
if vital, they ought to be capable of being again
resolved.
But a design once started upon some principle
—some particular motive of line or form — then,
in following this out, it will seem to develop almost
a life or law of growth of its own, which as a
matter of logical necessity will demand a particular
treatment — a certain natural consistency or har-
mony— from its main features down to the smallest
detail as a necessity of its existence.
We might further differentiate art as, on the one
hand, the image of the outward vision, and, on the
other, as the outcome or image of the inner vision.
The first kind would include all portraiture, by
which I mean faithful portrayal or transcript
whether of animate or inanimate nature ; while
the second would include all imaginative concep-
tions, decorative designs, and pattern inventions.
The outward vision obviously relies upon what
the eye perceives in nature. Its virtue consists
in the faithfulness and truth of its graphic record,
in the penetrating force of observation of fact,
and the representative power by which ihey are
reproduced on paper or canvas, clay or marble.
The image of the inner vision is also a record,
but of a different order of fact. It may be often
220
I AND 2, MOUNTAIN AND CRAG SCULPTURE : COAST LINES,
GULF OF NAUPLIA ; 3, LINES OF MOVEMENT IN WATER :
SHALLOW STREAM OVER SAND.
221
THE OUTWARD VISION AND INNER VISION
of unconscious impressions and memories which
are retained and recur with all or more than the
vividness of actuality — the tangible forms of ex-
ternal nature calling up answering, but not identical,
images in the mind, like reflections in a mirror or
in still water, which are similar but never the
same as the objects they reflect.
But the inner vision is not bound by the appear-
ances of the particular moment. It is the record
of the sum of many moments, and retains the
typical impress of multitudinous and successive
impressions — like the composite photograph, where
faces may be printed one over another until the
result is a more typical image than any individual
one taken separately.
The inner vision sees the results of time rather
ithan the impressions of the moment. It sees
[g£#££ rather than landscape : race rather than
men : spirits rather than mortals : types^ rather
than individuals.
The inner vision hangs the mind's house with
a mysterious tapestry of figurative thoughts, a rich
and fantastic imagery, a world where the elements
are personified, where every tree has its dryad,
and where the wings of the winds actually brush
the cheek.
The inner vision re-creates rather than repre-
• sents, and its virtue consists in the vividness and
beauty with which, in the language of line, form,
and colour, these visions 01 the mind are recorded
and presented to the outward eye.
There is often fusion here again between two
different tendencies, habits of mind, or ways of
regarding things. In all art the mind must work
222
THE OUTWARD VISION AND INNER VISION
through the eye, whether its force appears in
closeness of observation or in vivid imaginings.
The very vividness of realization even of the most
faithful portraiture is a testimony to mental powers.
The difference lies really in the focus of the
mental force ; and, in any case, the language of
line and form we use will neither be forcible or
convincing, neither faithful to natural fact nor true
to the imagination, without close and constant
study of external form and of its structure as well
as its aspect.
CHAPTER IX
Of the Adaptation of Line and Form in Design, in various
materials and methods — Mural Decoration- -Fresco-work of the
Italian Painters — Modern Mural Work — Mural Spacing and
Pattern Plans— Scale— The Skirting— The Dado— Field of the
Wall — The Frieze — Panelling — Tapestry — Textile Design —
Persian Carpets— Effect of Texture on Colour— Prints— Wall-
paper— Stained Glass.
WE have been considering hitherto the choice
and use of line and form, and various
methods of their representation in drawing, both
from the point of view of the graphic draughtsman
and that of the ornamental designer.
We now come to consider the subject solely
from the latter standpoint (the point of view of
ornamental design) ; and it will be useful to en-
O /
deavour to trace the principles governing the
selection of form and use of line as influenced by
some of the different methods and conditions of
craftsmanship, and as adapted to various decora-
tive purposes.
The most important branch of decorative art
may be said to be mural decoration, allied as it is
with the fundamental constructive art of all — ar-
chitecture, from which it obtains its determining
conditions and natural limitations.
Its history in the past is one of splendour and
dignity, and its record includes some of the finest
224
MURAL DECORATION
art ever produced. The ancient Asiatic nations
were well aware of its value not only as decoration
but as a record.
The palace and temple and tomb-walls of ancient
Egypt, Persia, and Assyria vividly illustrate the
life and ideas of those peoples, while they conform
to mural conditions. The painted council halls
GIOTTO: "CHASTITY" (LOWER CHURCH, ASSISI).
and churches of the Middle Ages fulfil the same
purpose in a different spirit ; but mural decoration
in its richest, most imaginative and complete form
was developed in Italy, from the time of Giotto,
whose famous works at the Arena Chapel at Padua
and Assisi are well known, to the time of Michael
Angelo, who in the sublime ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel seemed to touch the extreme limits of
mural work, and in fact might be said to have
225 Q
FRESCO-WORK OF ITALIAN PAINTERS
almost defied them, painting mouldings in relief
and in perspective to form the framework of pic-
tures where figures on different scales are used.
In the Sistine Chapel the series of earlier frescoes
on the lower wall by Botticelli, Lorenzo di Credi,
Ghirlandajo, Pinturicchio, and other Florentine
painters of the fifteenth century are really more
strictly mural in feeling, and safer as guides in
general treatment, than the work of the great
master himself. They have much of the repose
and richness as well as the quiet decorative effect
of tapestry.
The frescoes in the Palazzo Publico at Siena,
Pinturicchio's work in the Piccolomini Chapel and
the Appartimenti Borgia, the Campo Santo at
Pisa and the Riccardi Chapel of Benozzo Gozzoli
at Florence, may be mentioned as among the gems
of mural painting.
We have but little important mural painting in
this country. Doubtless, from various traces dis-
covered under Puritan whitewash, the walls of our
mediaeval churches were painted as frequently as
in continental countries, but so completely did
artistic tradition and religious sentiment change
after the Reformation that the opportunities have
been few and the encouragement less for mural
painting. An attempt to revive fresco-painting
was made in our Houses of Parliament, and
various scenes from our national history have been
rendered with varying degrees of merit ; but they
have chiefly demonstrated the need of continuous
practice in such work on the part of our painters
and the absence of a true decorative instinct.
It is to the honour of Manchester that her
226
MODERN MURAL WORK
Town Hall contains one of the most important
and interesting pieces of mural painting by one
PINTURICCHIO : MURAL PAINTING (PICCOLOMINI CHAPEL, SIENA).
of the most original of modern English artists —
Ford Madox Brown — a work conceived in the true
spirit of mural work, being a record of local his-
227
MODERN MURAL WORK
tory, as well as a decoration, while distinctly modern
in sentiment and showing strong dramatic feeling,
as well as historical knowledge.
The chapel on which Mr. F. J. Shields is en-
gaged in London will probably be unique in its'
way as a complete piece of mural decoration by an
English artist of singular individuality, sincerity,
and power, as well as decorative ability.
But unfortunately opportunities for important
mural decoration of this kind are very rare in
England. The art is not popularized : we have
no school of trained mural designers, and we
have no public really interested. Our commercial
system and system of house tenure are against it.
Our only chance is in public buildings, which in-
deed have always been its best field. Yet we
neglect, I think, a most important educational in-
fluence. The painted churches and public halls
of the Middle Ages filled in a great measure the
place of public libraries. A painted history, a
portrait, a dramatic or romantic incident told in
the vivid language of line, form, and colour, is
stamped upon the memory never to be forgotten.
It would be possible, I think, to impart a tolerably
exact knowledge of the sequence of history, of the
conditions of life at different epochs, of great men
and their work, from a well-imagined series of
mural paintings, without the aid of books ; and in
this direction, perhaps, our school walls would
present an appropriate field.
Modern opportunities of mural decoration are
chiefly domestic. The country mansion, or the
modest home of the suburban citizen, affords the
principal field in our time for the exercise of the
228
MODERN MURAL WORK.
taste or ingenuity of the wall-decorator. In this
comparatively restricted field, taste is perhaps of
more consequence than any other quality. A
sense of appropriateness, a harmonizing faculty, a
power of arrangement of simple materials — these
are invaluable, for, more than any others, they go
to the making of a livable interior.
On first thought it would almost seem as if
the designer was less technically restricted in this
direction of mural work than any other ; yet he
will soon feel that he cannot produce an artistic
and thoughtful scheme without taking many things
into consideration which really belong to the con-
ditions or natural limitations of his work.
There is, firstly, the idea of the wall itself — part
of the house-structure — a shelter and protection
or boundary. It is no part of a designer's business
to put anything upon the wall in the way of decora-
tion which will induce anyone to forget that it is
a wall — nothing to disturb the flatness and repose.
The four walls of a room inclose a space to
dwell in, in comfort and security. The windows
show us outward real life and nature. The walls
should not compete with the windows. Nature
must be translated into the terms of line and form
and colour, and invention and fancy may be pleas-
antly suggestive in the harmonious metre and
rhythm of pattern.
A wall surface extends horizontally and ver-
tically, but the vertical extension seems to assert
itself most to the eye.
Any arrangement of lines of the trellis or diaper
order logically covers a wall surface, and may be
appropriately used as a basis for a wall pattern,
229
MURAL SPACING AND PATTERN PLANS
whether merely to mark the positions of a simple
spray or formal sprig pattern, or as a ground-plan
for a completely filled field of repeating ornament,
whether painted, stencilled, or in the form of wall-
paper or textile hanging.
In the simple geometric net of squares or
diamonds or circles, however, there is nothing
that emphatically marks adaptability to a vertical
position. Such plans in themselves are equally
appropriate to the floor in the form of paving and
parquet. The ogee plan, however, and its variant,
the vertical serpentine or spiral plan, at once
suggest vertical extension, the former perhaps
by its leaf-like points arranging themselves scale-
wise, and the latter by its suggestion of ascending
movement.
It is noteworthy that in the course of the historic
evolution of mural decoration, designs based upon
these systems constantly recur. They are part
of the pattern-designer's vocabulary of line, and
among the principal, though simplest, terms by
which he is able to express vertical extension.
The question of scale in designing mural decora-
tion of any sort is very important. This demands
a certain power of realizing the effect of certain
lines and masses if carried out, and the relation of
one part to another as well as to the dimensions
of the walls and the room itself. Here, as indeed
throughout art, a reference to the human figure
will give us our key, since after all decoration goes
to form a background for humanity. With natural
flowers and leaves it is always right to design for
mural purposes on the same scale as nature.
Scale in design should be also considered in
230
DIAGRAM SHOWING THE PRINCIPAL FUNDAMENTAL PLANS
OR SYSTEMS OF LINE GOVERNING MURAL SPACING
AND DECORATIVE DISTRIBUTION.
231
SCALE
relation to the general character of a building and
its purpose, the use and lighting of a living room :
its dimensions and proportions, and relation to
other rooms. There is great range for individual
taste and fancy.
The artist would naturally look to the capacity
of the space which he had to decorate, and what it
suggested to his mind. He might want to empha-
size a long, low room by horizontal lines, or to
accentuate a lofty one by verticals.
By the judicious use of line and scale in design,
the designer holds a certain power of transforma-
tion in his hands, not to speak of the transforming
effect of colour of different keys and tones, the
apparent contraction or expansion of surfaces by
patterns of different character and scale.
It would obviously not do to regard any wall
merely as so much expanse of surface available for
sketching unrelated groups and figures upon, as
they might be jotted down in a sketch-book, and
to offer it as decoration. In an interior thus
treated, we should lose all sense of repose, dignity,
and proportion.
Use and custom, which fix and determine so
many things in social life without written laws,
have also prescribed certain divisions of the wall,
which, in regard to the exigencies of life and habit
and modern conditions generally, seem natural
enough.
The lower parts of the walls of most modern
dwellings being generally occupied by furniture
placed against them, and liable to be soiled or in-
jured, it would be out of place to put important
and elaborate ornament or figure designs extend-
232
DIAGRAM TO SHOW (l) HOW THE APPARENT DEPTH OF A SPACE
IS INCREASED BY THE USE OF VERTICAL LINES, AND (2)
HOW THE APPARENT WIDTH IS INCREASED BY THE USE
OF HORIZONTAL LINES.
233
THE SKIRTING
ing to the skirting. The wooden skirting, of
about nine inches or a foot in depth, which is
placed along the foot of the wall in our modern
rooms, is the armour-plating to protect the plaster,
which otherwise might be chipped and litter the
floor. It is perhaps the last relic of the more
substantial and extensive wood panelling and
wainscotting which, up to the latter part of the
last century, covered the lower walls of the more
comfortable houses, and has been revived in our
own day. The decorator may use panelling, or
wainscotting, or a simple chair-rail above plain
painting, wall-paper, dado, or stencilling, or a
dado of matting, as methods of covering, and at
the same time decorating, the lower walls of
rooms.
The use of the dado of a darker colour and of
wainscot is, no doubt, due to considerations of
wear and tear, and so, like the origin of much
ornamental art, may be traced to actual use and
constructive necessity. When the wood-work of
a room — the doors and window frames — is of the
same colour and character as the dado, a certain
agreeable unity is preserved, and it forms a useful
plain framing to set off the patterned parts of the
wall. This wainscot or dado framing with the
wood-work should be as to colour arranged to
suit the general scheme adopted. Where paint
is used, white for the wood-work usually has the
best effect.
The largest space of wall occurs above the
chair-rail, or dado, and, according to modern
habits and usage, portable property in the shape
of framed pictures, etc., is usually placed here
234
(A)
DECORATIVE SPACING OF THE WALL : SKETCHES (TO f-IN.
SCALE) TO SHOW DIFFERENT TREATMENT AND PROPOR-
TIONS.
235
FIELD OF THE WALL
along the eye-line, so that any decoration on this
— the main field of the wall — is regarded as sub-
sidiary to what is placed upon it ; but, of course,
pictures can be used as the central points of a
decorative scheme. On the upper part of a wall,
below the plaster cornice, the mural designer has
the chance of putting a frieze, and a frieze usually
gives the effect of additional height to a room,
besides enriching the wall.
An effective treatment of a large room, and one
which is more reposeful than cutting up the wall
into these portions, as in dado, field, and frieze, is
to carry up wood panelling to the frieze, and let
this (the frieze) be the important decorative feature.
Supposing the room was twelve feet high, one
could afford to have eight feet of panelling, and
then a frieze of four feet deep. In this case one
would look for an interesting painted frieze of
figures — some legend or story to run along the
lour sides of the room, and in such a case it might
be marked with considerable pictorial freedom.
More formal figure design or ornamental work
in coloured plaster-work, stucco, and gesso could
also be appropriately used in such a position, as
also on the ceiling.
Now as regards choice of line and form in their
relation to the decoration of such mural spaces.
Taking the lower wall, dado, or panelling, one
reason why panelling has so agreeable an effect is,
I think, that the series of vertical and horizontal
lines seem to express the proportions, while they
emphasize the flatness and repose of the wall, and
when used beneath a painted frieze they lead the
eye upwards, forming a quiet framing of rectan-
' 236
TAPESTRY
gular lines below to the ornate and varied design
of the frieze. Where we are limited to decorating
a wall by means of plain painting, stencils, or wall-
paper, this idea of reposeful constructive lines and
forms on the lower wall should still dominate upon
the field. Subject to our repeating plan we may
be freer both in line and form, using free scrolls,
branch-work, fruit, and flower masses at pleasure,
because the space is more extended, and we shall
feel the necessity in a repeating pattern of spread-
ing adequately over it ; but such designs, however
fine in detail, should be constructed upon a more
or less geometric base or plan. We are, as regards
the main field of the wall, still unavoidably, though
not disadvantageously, influenced by the tradition
of the textile hanging or arras tapestry, no doubt;
and certainly there is no more rich and comfortable
lining for living rooms than tapestry, or, at the
same time, more reposeful and decoratively satisfy-
ing. But, of course, where we can afford arras
tapestry (such as the superb work of William
Morris and his weavers), we ought not to allow
anything to compete with it upon the same wall.
It is sufficient in itself.
Of what splendour of colour and wealth of de-
corative and symbolical invention tapestry was
capable in the past may be seen in magnificent
Burgundian specimens of the fifteenth century,
now in the South Kensington Museum.
Tapestry hangings of a repeating pattern and
quiet colour could be used appropriately beneath
painted upper walls, or a frieze, as no doubt fre-
quently was the custom in great houses in the
Middle Ages.
237
APPARTIMENTI BORGIA
In the Appartimenti Borgia in the Vatican, for
instance, which consists of lofty vaulted rooms with
frescoes by Pinturicchio upon the upper walls be-
tween the spans of the vaulting, and upon the
vaulting itself, we may see, about eleven feet from
the floor, along the moulding, the hooks left for the
tapestry hangings, which completed the decoration
of the. room. The lower walls are now largely
occupied by book-shelves ; but books themselves
may form a pleasant background, as one may often
observe in libraries, especially when the bindings
are rich and good in tone : and here, too, we get
our verticals and horizontals again.
So long as. the feeling for the repose and flatness
of the wall surface is preserved, there are no special
limitations in the choice of form. It becomes far
more a matter of treatment of form and subject in
perfectly appropriate mural design. There is one
principle, however, which seems to hold good in
the treatment of important figure subjects to occupy
the main wall surfaces as panels : while pictorial
realization of a kind may be carried quite far, it is
desirable to avoid large masses of light sky, or to
attempt much in the way of atmospheric effect. It
is well to keep the horizon high, and, if sky is
shown, to break it with architecture and trees.
Still more important is it to observe this in
tapestry. It is very noticeable how tapestry de-
sign declined after the fifteenth century or early
years of the sixteenth, when perspective and pic-
torial planes were introduced, and sky effects to
emulate painting, and thus the peculiarly mural
feeling was lost, with its peculiar beauty, richness,
and repose.
238
FIGURE OF LAURA, FROM THE BURGUNDIAN TAPESTRIES: '1HE
TRIUMPHS OF PETRARCH (SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM).
239
THE FRIEZE
In the translation into tapestry even of so
tapestry-like a picture as that of Botticelli's ." Pri-
mavera," it is noteworthy how Mr. Morris has felt
the necessity of reducing the different planes, and
the chiaroscuro of the painting, by more leafy and
floral detail ; making it, in short, more of a pattern
than a picture.
A. frieze is susceptible of a much more open,
lighter, and freer treatment than a field. A frieze
is one of the mural decorator's principal means of
giving lightness and relief to his wall. In purely
floral and ornamental design the field of close
pattern, formal diaper, or sprigs at regular inter-
vals may be appropriately relieved by bolder lines
and masses, and a more open treatment in the
frieze. The frieze, too, affords a means of contrast
in line to the line system of the field of the wall,
its horizontal expression usefully opposing the
verticals or diagonals of the wall pattern below.
The frieze may be regarded as a horizontal border,
and in border designs the principle of transposition
of the relation of pattern to ground is a useful one
to bear in mind, as leading always to an effective
result. I mean, supposing our field shows a pattern
mainly of light upon dark, the frieze might be on
the reverse plan, a dark pattern on a light ground.
And whereas, as I have said, one would exclude
wide light spaces from our mural field, in the frieze
one might effectively show a light sky ground
throughout, and arrange a figure or floral design
upon that.
The principle governing the treatment of main
and lower wall spaces or fields, which teaches the
designer to preserve the repose of the surface, may
240
TEXTILE DESIGN
be said to rule also in all textile design, and textile
design has, as we have seen in the form of tapes-
PINTURICCHIO : FRESCO IN THE APPARTIMENTI BORGIA.
try, and hangings of all kinds, a very close associ-
ation with mural decoration.
Any textile may be considered, from the de-
signer's point of view, as presenting so much sur-
241 R
TEXTILE DESIGN
face for pattern, whether that surface is hung upon
a wall, or curtains a door or a window, or is spread
in the form of carpets or rugs upon floors, or over
the cushions of furniture, or adapts itself to the
variety of curve surface and movement of the
human form in dress materials and costume. Tex-
tile beauty is beauty of material and surface, and
unless the pattern or design upon it or woven with
it enhances that beauty of material and surface,
and becomes a part of the expression of that
material and surface, it is better without pattern.
To place informal shaded flowers and leaves
upon a carpet, for instance, where the warp is
very emphatic, and the process of weaving neces-
sitates a stepped or rectangularly broken outline,
is to mistake appropriate decorative effect, capacity
of material, and position in regard to the eye. We
cannot get away, in a carpet, from the idea of aflat
field starred with more or less formal flowers, and
colour arrangements which owe their richness and
beauty, not to the relief of shading, but to the
heraldic principle of relieving one tint or colour
upon another. The rich inlay of colour which a
Persian or any Eastern carpet presents is owing
to its being designed upon this principle ; and in
Persian work that peculiarly rich effect of colour,
apart from fine material, is owing to the principle
of the use of outlines of different colours defining
and relieving the different forms in the pattern
upon different grounds. The rectangular influence
arising from the technical conditions of the work
o
gives a definite textile character to the design
which is very agreeable ; besides, as a question of
line and form, in a carpet or rug which is rect-
242
PORTION OF DETAIL OF THE HOLY CARPET OF THE MOSQUE
OF ARDEBIL: PERSIAN, SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
243
EFFECT OF TEXTURE ON COLOUR :
angular in shape and laid usually upon rectangular
floors, the squareness of form harmonizes with the
conditions and surroundings of the work in use.
The Persian designer, indeed, appears to be so
impressed with this feeling, that he uses a succes-
sion of borders around the central field of his car-
pet or rug, still further emphasizing the rectangu-
larity ; while he avoids the too rigid effect of a
series of straight lines which the crossing of the
threads of the weft at right angles to the warp
might cause, by changing the widths of his subsi-
diary borders and breaking them with a constant
variety of small patterns, and inserting narrow
white lines between the black lines of the border.
In tapestry the effect of the emphatic warp
worked vertically in the loom, but hung hori-
zontally, has a very important influence upon the
effect. If we took a piece of paper coloured with
a flat even tint, and folded it in ridges, the quality
of the tint would be at once changed, and so in
tapestry the passing of the wool of the wefts,
which form the pattern or picture, over the strong
lines of the warp — which are broad enough to
take the outlines of the cartoon upon them — pro-
duces that soft and varied play of colour — really
colour in light and shade — which, over and above
the actual dyes and artistic selection of tints, gives
the peculiar charm and effect in tapestry.
This sheen and variety are more or less evident
in all textiles, and a good textile pattern only
adds to the variety and richness of the surface.
The different thicknesses or planes of surface
and the difference of their texture caused by the
different wefts being brought to the surface of the
244
SKETCH TO ILLUSTRATE TREATMENT OF BORDERS IN A
PERSIAN RUG.
PRINTS
cloth or silk (from the simplest contrast of line
presented by the simplest arrangements of warp
and weft, to the complexities of many -coloured
silk stuffs and brocade) alone give a value to the
surface pattern.
In cut velvet the same principle of contrast of
surface is emphasized still further, the rich deep
nap of the less raised parts contrasting pleasantly
with the mat effect of the ground.
In designs for such material one should aim at
boldly blocked-out patterns in silhouette— bold
leaf and fruit forms say — designed on the prin-
ciple of the stencil.
/ With prints the range is of course freer, the
/material itself suggesting something lighter and
more temporary. It seems highly probable that
printed cotton was originally a substitute for em-
broidered linen or more sumptuous materials.
There are certainly instances of very similar
patterns in Indian and Persian work in silk em-
broidery, and also in printed cotton. In some
cases the print is partly embroidered, which seems
to mark a transitional stage, and recalls the
lingering use of illumination in the early days
of the printing press, in another department of
art.
Anything that will repeat as a pattern in what
can be produced by line, dot, and tints of colour,
and engraved upon wood-blocks or copper rollers,
can be printed of course ; and, as is generally the
case with an art which has no very obvious tech-
nical limitations, it is liable to be caught by the
imitative spirit, and cheap and rapid production
and demand for novelties (so-called) generally end
246
ARRAS TAPESTRY : DIAGRAMS TO SHOW
WORKING AND SURFACE EFFECT:
TION OF WARP AS WORKED IN THE
EFFECT OF THE WEFTS; (2) EN
WARP AS HUNG (HORIZONTAL) ; (3)
THE PRINCIPLE OF
(l) VERTICAL POSI-
LOOM AND RELIEF
LARGED SECTION OF
SINGLE THREADS OF
WARP AND WEFT; (4) WARP AND WEFT AS IN THE LOOM
/VERTICAL).
PRINTS
in loss of taste and deterioration of quality, espe-
cially in design. From the artistic point of view
we can only correct this by bearing in mind
similar considerations to those which hold good
as general principles and guides in designing for
textiles generally, having regard to the object,
purpose, and position — to the ultimate use of the
material, and differentiating our designs, as in the
case of other textile design accordingly.
Thus in the matter of plan and direction of line
and character of form we shall at once find
natural distinctions and divisions, as our design
is for hanging, or spreading horizontally, or wear-
ing ; and these different functions will also deter-
mine scale and choice and treatment of form and
colour.
There is no doubt that with patterns printed
more range may be allowed than with patterns to
be woven, where line and form are both controlled
by the necessities of being reproduced by so many
points to the inch. At the same time the object
of all design and pattern work being the greatest
beauty compatible with the material and condi-
tions, one should seek, not such effects as merely
test the capacity or ingenuity of the machine, but
rather such as appear to be most decoratively
appropriate and effective.
There appears to be no mechanical reason why
cotton should not be printed all over with land-
scapes and graphic sketches, and people clothe
themselves with them as with Christmas numbers,
or turn their couches, chairs, and curtains into
scrap albums, but there is every reason on the
score of taste why these things should not be done.
248 ^
(l) CONTRASTING SURFACES OF WARP AND WEFT IN WOVEN
SILK HANGING j (2) STENCIL PRINCIPLE.
PRINTS
With any textile, as I have said, we are as
designers dealing with surface. It is surface
ornament that is wanted also in printed cotton.
Now good line and form and pure tints have the
best effect, because they do not break the surface
into holes, and give a ragged or tumbled appear-
ance, which accidental bunches of darkly-shaded
flowers in high relief undoubtedly do. If small
rich detail and variety are wanted, we should seek
it in the inventive spirit of the Persian and Indian,
and break our solid colours with mordants or
arabesques in colour of delicate subsidiary pattern
instead of using coarse planes of light and shadow,
or showing up ragged and unrelated forms upon
violent grounds.
The true idea of a print pattern is of something
gay and fanciful : bright and fresh in colour, and
clear in line and form : a certain quaintness is
allowable, and in purely floral designs there is
room for a considerable degree of what might be
called naturalism, so far as good line-drawing and
understanding of flower form goes, emphasis of
colour being sought by means of planes of colour,
rather than by planes of shadow.
I had intended to touch upon other provinces
of design, but I have taken up so much space
with those I have been discussing already that I
can only now briefly allude to these.
Of wall-paper, which may be regarded in the
light of more or less of a substitute for mural
painting, and also textile wall-hangings, much the
same general principles and many of the same
remarks apply as have been already used in
regard to mural decoration. The designer has
250
INDIAN PRINTED COTTON COVER: SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM.
251
WALL-PAPER
much freedom as to motive, and his ingenuity is
only bounded by or concentrated in a square of
twenty-one inches. If he has succeeded in making
an agreeable pattern which will repeat not too
obviously over an indefinite space, to form a not
obtrusive background, and which can be printed
and sold to the ordinary citizen, he is supposed to
have satisfied the conditions.
But he may be induced to go further and
attempt the design of a complete decoration as
far as dado, field, frieze, and ceiling go ; and this
would involve all the thought necessary to the
mural painter, narrowed down to the exigencies of
mechanical repeat.
Allied to the wall is the window, and in glazing
and the art of the glass-painter we have another
very distinct and beautiful sphere of line design.
In plain leading the same law of covering vertical
surface holds good as to selection of plan and
system of line : almost any simple geometric net
is appropriate, if not too complex or small in form
to hold glass or to permit lead to follow its lines.
Leaded panels of roundels (or " bull's eyes ") of
plain glass have a good effect in casements where
a sparkle of light rather than outward view is
sought for.
When we come to designing for stained glass
we should still bear in mind the fundamental net
of lead lines which forms the basis of our pattern,
or glass picture, as it were : and the designer's
object should be to make it good as an arrange-
ment of line independently of the colour, while
practical to the glazier.
Although lead is very pliable, too much must
252
(l) STAINED GLASS TREATMENT : INCLOSURE OF FORM AND
COLOUR BY LEAD LINES ; (2) SECTIONS.
253
STAINED GLASS
not be expected of it in the way of small depres-
sions and angles : the boundary lines of the figures,
which should be the boldest of all, should be kept
as simple as possible, not only on this account,
but because complex outlines cannot well be cut
in glass. A head, for instance, is inclosed in
sweeping line, and the profile defined within the
lead line by means of painting. A hand would be
defined on the same principle, Each different
colour demands a different inclosure of lead,
although in the choice of glass much variation of
tint can be obtained, as in the case of pot metal
running from thin to thick glass, which intensifies
the colour, and many kinds of what is called
flashed. Yet to the designer, from the point of
view of line, glass design is a kind of translucent
mosaic, in which the primal technical necessity of
the leading which holds the glory of the coloured
light together, really enhances its splendour, and
in affording opportunities for decoration and ex-
pressive linear composition imparts to the whole
work its particular character and beauty.
This after all is the principle to cling to in all
designing, to adapt our designs to the particular
distinctive character and beauty of the material
for which they are destined, to endeavour to think
them out in those materials, and not only on
paper. Whatever the work may be — carving,
inlays, modelling, mosaic, textiles — through the
whole range of surface decoration, we should
think out our designs, not only in relation to the
limitations of their material, but also in their re-
lation to each other, to their effect in actual use,
and even to their possible use in association to-
254
STAINED GLASS
gether, which, of course, is of paramount import-
ance in designing a complete room or any com-
prehensive piece of decoration.
And when we leave plane surfaces and seek to
invent appropriate, that is to say, expressive orna-
ment allied to concave and convex surfaces, to the
varied forms of pottery for instance, metal-work,
and glass vessels, furniture, and accessories of all
kinds, we shall find the same laws and principles
hold good which should guide us in all design — to
adapt design to the characteristics and conditions
of the material, to its structural capacity, its use
and purpose, as well as to use or invention in line,
both as a controlling plan or base of ornament, as
well as a means of the association and expression
of form.
255
CHAPTER X
Of the Expression and Relief of Line and Form by Colour
—Effect of same Colour upon different Grounds — Radiation of
Colour — White Outline to clear Colours — Quality of Tints re-
lieved upon other Tints — Complementaries — Harmony— The
Colour Sense— Colour Proportions — Importance of Pure Tints
—Tones and Planes — The Tone of Time — Pattern and Picture
— A Pattern not necessarily a Picture, but a Picture in principle
a Pattern — Chiaroscuro — Examples of Pattern-work and Pic-
ture-work— Picture-patterns and Pattern-pictures.
PERHAPS the most striking means of the
expression of relief of line and form, certainly
the most attractive, is by colour. By colour we
obtain the most complete and beautiful means of
expression in art
Our earliest ideas of form are probably derived
through the different colours of objects around us,
by which they are- thrown into relief upon the
background, or against other objects ; and, as I
mentioned in the first chapter, we reach outline by
observing the edges of different masses relieved
as dark or light upon light or dark grounds, so
now, in my last, we come again to the considera-
tion of the definition of line and form by colour,
and their relief and expression upon different
planes or fields of colour.
There is first the colour of the object itself — the
local colour — and then the colour of the ground
256
SKETCH TO SHOW EFFECT OF THE SAME COLOUR AND FORM
UPON DIFFERENT COLOURED GROUNDS.
257
RELIEF OF LINE AND FORM BY COLOUR
upon which it is relieved, both of which in their
action and reaction upon each other will greatly
affect the value of the local colour and the degree
of relief of the form upon it.
One of the best and simplest ways to ascertain
the real value of a colour and its effect upon differ
ent grounds or fields is to take a flower — say a
red poppy, and place it against a white paper
ground, blocking in the local colour as relieved
upon white, as near as may be to its full strength,
with a brush, and defining the form as we go
along. Then try the same flower upon grounds
of different tints — green, blue, yellow — and it will
be at once perceived what a different value and
expression the same form in the same colour has
upon different tinted grounds. A scarlet poppy
would appear clearest and darkest upon white ; it
would show a tendency upon a blue ground to
blend or blur at its edges, and also on yellow and
green to a less extent.
It is this tendency to lose the edges of forms
owing to the radiation of colours, and to mingle
with the colour of the background, which makes a
strong outline so constantly a necessity in decora-
tive work. One may use a black on a white, a
brown, or a gold outline (as in cloisonne), the
nature of the outline being generally determined
by the nature of the work. In stained glass the
outline must be black, and this black is of the
greatest value in enhancing by opposition the
brilliance of the colours of the glass it incloses,
stopping out the light around it as it does in solid
lead when placed in the window.
A white outline produced by a resist or a mord-
258
(l) PRINCIPLE OF THE EFFECT OF THE BLENDING OR
BLURRING OF COLOURS AT THEIR EDGES; (2)
USE OF BLACK AND WHITE OUTLINE TO CLEAR
THE EDGES OF COLOURED FORMS UPON DIFFER-
ENT COLOURED GROUNDS.
259
CLEARING COLOURED FORMS
ant in a printed textile, where the colours used
are full and rich, often has a good effect, lightening
the effect while giving point and definition to cer-
tain leading forms. Instances of the use of white
outlines may be found in Eastern carpets, where
the main colours, being dark blue and yellows on
rich red, are relieved in parts by a dull white out-
line. Also in Persian carpets of the sixteenth or
seventeenth century, the scrollwork in red is often
relieved by an ivory white outline on blue.
It is always a good practice in blocking in
flowers, either from nature or as parts of a design,
to leave a white outline at the junctions — that is
to say, where one petal overlaps another, or where
there is a joint in the stem, or a fold in the leaf—
and to show the ribbings, markings, and divisions
of flower and leaf.
By judiciously changing the quality of our tints
it is possible to make different colours in a pattern
tell clearly. To relieve red upon blue, for in-
stance, one would use an orange red upon green-
ish blue, or scarlet upon a gray blue — the general
principle being apparently a kind of compensating
balance between colours, so that in taking from
one you give to another.
A full red and blue used together, as we have
seen, would show a tendency to purple, unless
separated by outlines ; so that if the blue was
full and rich, the red would have to approach
brown or russet ; or if the red was a full one — a
crimson red — the blue would have to approach
green.
This may be because of the necessary comple-
ments in colours, which we see in nature, and
260
HARMONY
which prepossess the eye, and make it demand
these modifications to satisfy the sense of harmony.
When daylight struggles with candle- or lamp-
light, one may notice that upon the white cloth of
a dinner-table the light is blue and the shadows
yellow or orange — the orange deepening as with
the fading daylight the blue grows deeper, until
the colour of the light and the shadow change
places. The same principle may be noticed in
firelight, but the redder the flame the greener will
be the shadows.
Harmony in colour may be said to consist-
apart from the general acknowledgment of the
law of complementaries, in giving quality to the
raw pigments by gradation, by a certain admixture
or infusion of other colours.
To begin with the negatives — white and black
—white may be creamy or silvery ; black may be
of a greenish or a bluish or brownish tone ; then
the primaries — red, blue, yellow, or red, green,
violet — red may range from crimson to orange
and russet ; yellow may approach green or gold ;
green may be first cousin to blue ; blue may be
turquoise on the one hand, and touch purple upon
the other ; and so on through infinite variations of
half tints and tones.
No doubt it is an easier matter to harmonize
half tints than full bright colours, which may
account for the prevalence of the former in deco-
rative work. Nature's pattern-book, too, is full
of half tones and mixed tints.
We may not all see colour precisely in the same
way, and the same colour may appear to be of a
different tint to different eyes ; and it seems cer-
261
THE COLOUR SENSE
tain that climate and surroundings affect the colour
sense : light and colour will stimulate the delight
in colour ; while, where grayness and dullness
characterize the surroundings of life, the colour
sense will grow weak, or, if it is manifested at all,
it will show a tendency to grayness and heaviness
of tint.
The art of the different peoples of the world
illustrates this, and, as we may see by turning
from east to west, or from north to south, or even
from winter to summer, in the main the love ot
colour follows the sun, like the rainbow.
We can all do something to cultivate our sense
of colour, however, and there is no better way
than studying the harmonies and varieties of
nature. Even the town-dweller is not altogether
deprived of the sight of the sky, which constantly
unfolds the most beautiful compositions both of
form and colour.
As to the choice of colours in decorative design,
so far as that is not narrowed by the particular
conditions of the work, we must be guided by
much the same considerations as would serve us
in designing generally, and must, of course, think
of appropriateness to position and purpose. Much
depends, too, upon proportions of colour, and a
beautiful and harmonious effect may be produced
in a room by keeping the colour in a particular
key, or even delicately varying the designs and
tints of one or two colours. The same might be
said in arranging a scheme of colouring for any
particular piece of design — say, a painted panel
or a textile pattern ; although such things must
ultimately be governed by their relation to other
262
IMPORTANCE OF PURE TINTS
parts in any general scheme — circumstances ne-
cessitate their being often designed apart. Still,
if the colour of a pattern has been carefully thought
out, or rather harmoniously felt, as a real organic
thing, it is sure to fit into its place when its time
comes.
In arranging our design of colour we can have
no better guide, as to proportions and quality,
than nature, and should do well, as a matter of
practice, to take a flower, or the plumage of a
bird, or the co1ours of a landscape, and adapt
them to some particular pattern or scheme of
decoration, following the relative degrees of tint
and their quantities as nearly as possible. To do
this successfully requires some invention and
taste ; but successful, or unsuccessful, one could
hardly fail to learn something positive and valu-
able about colour, if the attempt was conscien-
tiously made ; and fresher motives and sweeter
colour would be more likely to result from such
study.
I think it is a very important thing in all de-
corative work to keep one's colours pure in quality,
and to avoid muddy or heavy tints. Brown is an
especially difficult colour to use, because of its
generally heavy effect as a pigment, and the dif-
ficulty of harmonizing it with other colours except
as an outline ; and even here it makes all the dif-
ference whether it is a cool or a hot shade. A
hot brown is most destructive of harmony in
colours. It is safe, as a rule, to make it lean to
green, or bronze, or gold.
As a general rule it is well to work either in a
range of cool tints — a cool key of colour, or the
263
IMPORTANCE OF PURE TINTS
reverse — a warm and rich one. Few cool har-
monies can be better than ultramarine and tur-
quoise on greenish white, of which the Persians
and Indians are so fond in tile-work. They are
delightful to the eye, while peculiarly adapted to
the work, owing their quality to the oxide of
copper, which the firing brings out so well.
Blues and greens and grays, relieved with white
and yellow and orange : or, reds and yellows, re-
lieved with white and opposed by blacks, generally
answer : or a range of reds together, or range of
blues, or of yellows, with black and white for con-
trast and accent. Blue and white, too, can be
modified in quality ; black may be greenish in
tone, or brownish, bluish, or purplish according to
the harmony aimed at. White may be pure or
ivory-toned, cream-coloured or influenced by other
colours, and should vary in degree according to the
strength of the harmony. This brings us to the
question of tone.
Now the ornamentist, the designer ot patterns,
relies for his effect upon the use of certain planes
and oppositions of tints to relieve and express his
design, to emphasize its main motive, to bring out
or to subdue its lines and forms. He knows that
cool flat tints — blues, greens, grays — will make
forms and surfaces retire, and he makes use of
them for flat and reposeful effects, such as wall
and ceiling surfaces, adopting the natural principle
of colour in landscape and sky.
He uses richer and more varied colour in textile
hangings and carpets, furniture, and accessories-
reds, yellows, greens, crimson, russets, orange,
gold — which answer to the brighter flowers and
264
TONES AND PLANES
parterres of our gardens, as things to be near the
eye and touch, and to occur as lesser quantities in
a scheme of interior colour design.
In the colour design of patterns, harmonious
and rich effects can be produced by the use of
pure colour alone, no doubt, if carefully propor-
tioned, and separated by outline ; though harmony
is. more difficult to attain in pure colours used in
their full strength ; and for their due effect, and to
avoid harshness, such a treatment really requires
out-door light or special conditions of lighting, or
the strong light of eastern or southern countries,
to soften the effect.
And since we have to adapt our designs to
their probable surroundings, we usually consciously
select certain tones or shades of a colour, rather
than use it absolutely pure or in its full strength.
The beautiful tone which time gives to all colour-
work is difficult to rival, but no conscious imitation
of it is tolerable.
But so long as our aim is strictly to make a
colour scheme of any kind in relation to itself, or
in harmony with its conditions, we are on a safe
and sound path. It is this relativity which is the
important thing in all decorative art, and which,
more distinctly than any other quality, distinguishes
it from pictorial art ; although pictorial art is
under the necessity of the same law in regard
to itself; and in its highest forms, as in mural
work, is certainly subject to relativity in its widest
sense.
At first sight it might appear as if there were
an essential fundamental natural difference be-
tween a pattern and a picture, but when we come
265
PATTERN AND PICTURE
to consider it, it appears to be rather a distinction
than a difference.
A pattern may be an arrangement of lines,
forms, and a harmony of planes and tones of
colour.
But these words would describe in general
terms a picture also.
Certain recurrences of line and form ; certain
re-echoing notes of the same, or allied colour, are
necessary to both pattern and picture. The ab-
stract ingredients appear to be the same in both
cases.
A picture indeed may be considered as a pattern
of another sort, and the real difference is that
whereas a pattern is not necessarily a picture, a
picture is bound to be a pattern — a pattern having
its quantities, its balance of masses, its connecting
lines, its various planes, its key of colour, its play
of contrasts, its harmony of tones.
Technically, a picture may be considered as an
informal pattern, mainly of tone and values ; while
a pattern may be considered as a formal pattern,
mainly of planes of colour.
The ancient art of the East was all frankly
pattern - work, whatever the subject pictured
Egyptian, Persian, Indian, Chinese, Moorish and
Arabian art, in all their varieties, show the domin-
ating sense of pattern, and the invention of the
instinctive decorators in the use of colour.
The Japanese, also,- are instinctive decorators,
though in a less formal and more impressionistic
way, and with much more naturalistic feeling.
Their pictures printed from colour blocks, as well
as their " kakimonos," painted on silk, are frankly
266
CHIAROSCURO
pattern-pictures, the pattern motive being quite
as strong or stronger than the graphic or repre-
sentative motive.
Mediaeval and early Renaissance painting in
Europe was frankly more or less formal and of
the nature of ornament, and even in its freest and
fullest development, in the works of the great
masters of the sixteenth century of Venice and
Florence, a certain decorative or architectural
feeling was never forgotten.
Painting was still in close association with archi-
tecture, and was the chief adornment of churches
and palaces ; thus it preserved a peculiar distinc-
tion and dignity of style. The Dutch school did
more perhaps to break these old decorative and
architectural traditions than any other, with their
domestic and purely naturalistic motives, their
pursuit of realism, atmospheric effect, and chiar-
oscuro— that fascinating goal of painting.
Yet there were some of the seventeenth-century
masters, and of the best, such as De Hooghe and
Ver Meer of Delft, who showed themselves very
much alive to decorative effect, which their power
of chiaroscuro — the power of painting things in
their proper atmosphere, as lost in transparent
depths of shadow, or found in luminous mystery-
only seemed to enhance.
As a wonderful instance of ornamental and
dignified design carried into every detail with
most careful draughtsmanship, and yet beautiful
in chiaroscuro and grave colour, there is no finer
example than J. Van Eyck's portrait-picture of
"Jan Arnolfini and his Wife" in our National
Gallery. Such pictures as these would tell as
267
j. VAN EYCK: "PORTRAIT OF JAN ARNOLFINI AND HIS WIFE.
(NATIONAL GALLERY.)
268
CHIAROSCURO
rich and precious gems upon the wall, and would
form the centres to which the surrounding colour
patterns and decoration would lead up, as in the
VER MEER OF DELFT: "LADY AT A SPINET." (NATIONAL GALLERY.)
picture the little mirror reflecting the figures shines
upon the wall, a picture within a picture.
It is instructive from any point of view to study
the quantities and relations of colour, and their
tones and values, in such works.
269
VER MEER OF DELFT
Take Ver Meer's " Lady at a Spinet " in our
National Gallery.
We have a plain white wall, exquisite in tone,
upon which the crisp gold of the small picture in-
closing a brownish landscape with a blue and
white sky, and the broad black frame of the picture
of Cupid tell strongly, yet fall into plane behind
the figure in white satin — quite a different quality
of white, and warmer and brighter than the wall.
The bodice is a steely blue silk, which is repeated
in the velvet seat of the chair ; while the blue and
white landscape upon the open ltd of the spinet
repeats the blue and white landscape on the wall,
and the blue and white motive is subtly re-echoed
in a subdued key in the little tiles lining the base
of the wall. The floor is a chequer of black and
white (mottled) marble, which gives a fine relief
to the dress and repeats the emphatic black of the
picture frame ; the stand of the spinet is also black
striated marble. Quiet daylight falls through the
greenish white of the leaded panes. The pink-
brown woodwork of the spinet and chair prevent
the colour scheme from being cold. The flesh is
very pale and ivory-like in tone, but the dress is
enlivened by little crisp scarlet and gold touches
in the narrow laces which tie the sleeves.
The little picture is a gem of painting and truth
of tone, and at the same time might well suggest
a charming scheme of colour to an ornamentist.
Examine the Van Eyck in the same way, and
we shall find a very rich but quiet scheme of colour
in a lower key, highly decorative, yet presented
with extraordinary realistic force, united with ex-
treme refinement and exquisite chiaroscuro, and
270
VAN EYCK
truth of tone and value, as a portrait-picture, and
piece of interior lighting.
It is like taking an actual peep into the inner
life of a Flemish burgher of the fifteenth century.
One seems to breathe the still air of the quiet
room, the gray daylight falling through the leaded
casements, one of which stands open, and shows
a narrow strip of luminous sky and suggestion of
a garden with scarlet blossoms in green leaves.
The man is clad in a long mantle of claret-
brown velvet edged with fur, over black tunic and
hose. He wears a quaint black hat upon his
head, which almost foreshadows the tall hat of the
modern citizen. The pale strange face looks paler
and stranger beneath it, but is in character with
the long thin hands. The figure gives one the
impression of legal precision and dryness, and a
touch of clerical formality. The wife is of a buxom
and characteristic Flemish type, in a grass-green
robe edged with white fur, over peacock blue ; a
crisp silvery white head-dress ; a dark red leather
belt with silver stitching. Her figure is relieved
upon the subdued red of the bed hangings, con-
tinued in the cover of the settle and the red clogs.
The wall of the room, much lost in transparent
shade, is of a greenish gray tone, and in the centre,
between the figures, a circular convex mirror
sparkles on the wall reflecting the backs of the
figures. Thin lines delicately repeat the red in
the mirror frame, which has a black and red inner
moulding. A string of amber beads hangs on the
wall, and repeats the shimmer of the bright brass
candelabra which hangs aloft, and which is drawn
carefully enough for a craftsman to reproduce.
271
PATTERN-PICTURES
Both designer and painter may find abundant
suggestion in this picture, which, with Ver Meer's
" Lady at the Spinet," I should describe zspat'ern-
pictures — that is to say, while they are thoroughly
painter's pictures, and give all the peculiar qualities
of oil-painting in the rendering oi tone and values,
they yet show in their colour scheme the decorative
quality, and might be translated into patterns of the
same proportions and keys of colours.
As examples of what might be termed picture-
patterns we might recur to the wall paintings, as
I have said, of ancient Egypt and early art gener-
ally, for their simplest forms ; but to take a much
later instance, and from the art of Florence in the
fifteenth century, look at Botticelli's charming little
picture of " The Nativity," in the National Gallery.
It has all the intentional, or perhaps instinctive,
ornamental aim of Italian art, and its colour scheme
shows a most dainty and delicate invention in the
strictest relation to the subject and sentiment, and
is arranged with the utmost subtlety and the nicest
art.
The ring of angels above, for instance, is partly
relieved upon a gilded ground — to represent the
dome of heaven. They bear olive branches, and
the colour of their robes alternates in the following
order : rose, olive (shot with gold), and white.
The rose-coloured angels have olive and white
wings ; the white angels, rose and olive wings ; and
the olive angels, ^vhite and rose wings,
This part of the picture by itself forms a most
beautiful pattern motive, while it expresses the
idea of peace and goodwill.
Then on the brown and gold thatch of the
272
BOTTICELLI
BOTTICELLI: "THE NATIVITY" (NATIONAL GALLERY).
stable occur three more angels in white, rose, and
green, respectively. Against a pale sky rise rich
olive-green trees, forming the background.
The Virgin strikes the brightest ray of colour
273 T
BOTTICELLI
in red under-robe and sky-blue mantle. There is
a gray white ass and a pale brown cow behind
her.
St. Joseph is in steel gray with a golden orange
mantle over.
The brightest white occurs in the drapery upon
which the infant Christ lies.
An angel with a group of men appears, kneeling
on the left relieved against white rocks ; their
colours are — the angel's wings — peacock blue and
green, and a pale rose robe. The next figure is
in scarlet ; the next yellow ; and the third man
wears pale rose over rich grass-green.
Of the shepherds on the right the first one is in
russet and white, the next steely gray, and the
angel is in white with rose and pale green wings.
The ground is generally warm white and brown,
with dark olive-coloured grass and foliage, so that
the pattern of the picture is mainly a ground of
olive, gold, and white, relieved by spots of rose,
white, blue, yellow, and rose-red and scarlet — the
colour in the groups of angels embracing men in
*ront being the deepest in tone.
The first angel in this group (on the left) wears
green shot with gold, with shot green and gold
wings, the human being in dark olive and rich
crimson red.
Next is a white angel with pale rose wings ; the
man in gray with a red mantle over.
Last is an angel in rose, with rose and red
wings, the man being in scarlet with gray mantle
over. All the men hold olive branches, and the
group emphatically illustrates the idea of " on
earth peace and goodwill towards men/' thus
274
HOLBEIN
ending on the keynote both of colour and idea
given in the ring of angels above.
Thus it is not only a lovely picture, but an
exquisite pattern.
Another instance of a picture- pattern extremely
HOLBEIN : " THE AMBASSADORS " (NATIONAL GALLERY).
strong and brilliant in its realization oi the full
force and value of bright colour opposed by the
strongest black and white, may be found in
Holbein's splendid " Ambassadors," also in our
National Collection.
The circular picture of the Madonna and Child,
with St. John and an angel, by Botticelli, is also
275
BOTTICELLI
another beautiful instance of pictorial pattern, and
of design well adapted and adequately filling its
space, while full of delicate draughtsmanship,
BOTTICELLI I " MADONNA AND CHILD " (NATIONAL GALLERY).
poetic sentiment, and extremely ornate in its
colour.
Still more strictly ornamental in character and
aim is Carlo Crivelli's " Annunciation." Amaz-
276
CARLO CRIVELLI
ingly rich in invention, and beautifully designed
detail, and magnificently decorative in its colour
CARLO CRIVELLI : "THE ANNUNCIATION" (NATIONAL GALLERY).
scheme of brick reds and whites, and pale pinks,
and steel grays, and yellows, varied with scarlet
277
PERUGINO
and black, green, blue and gold, in the costumes
and draperies, sparkling with jewels, and bright-
ened with rays and patterns of gold.
Hardly less ornamental in its more conscious
grace and Renaissance feeling is Perugino's trip-
tych of the Virgin adoring, with St. Michael on
one wing and St. Raphael and Tobias on the
other. It is a splendid deep-toned harmony of
PERUGINO: "THE VIRGIN IN ADORATION, WITH ST. MICHAEL
AND ST. RAPHAEL AND TOBIAS " (NATIONAL GALLERY).
blues, and warm flesh tones and golden hair, varied
by opals, rose red, bronze, green, white, and purple
and orange.
Titian's " Bacchus and Ariadne " is, perhaps,
more what I have described as a pattern-picture,
and is of a much later type. The full flush of
colour and pagan joy of the Renaissance is here
paramount, expressed with the masterly freedom of
drawing and magnificent colour sense of the great
278
TITIAN
Venetian master. Yet, looking through the life,
the movement, the swing and vitality of the figures,
and the power and poetry by which the story is
conveyed, we shall find a fine ornate design, sus-
taining an extremely rich and sumptuous pattern
of colour. We have a spread of deep-toned blue
sky barred with silvery white and gray clouds,
TITIAN: "BACCHUS AND ARIADNE" (NATIONAL GALLERY).
great masses of brown and green foliage swaying
against it, above a band of deep blue sea, and a
field of rich golden brown earth. Warm flesh
tones, deep and pale, break upon this with a
gorgeous pattern of flying rose, blue, scarlet,
orange, and white draperies, varied with the
spotted coats of the leopards, the black of the
dog, and the copper vessel and warm white of
tumbled drapery.
279
TITIAN
Keats might have had this picture in his mind
when he wrote the song in " Endymion " :
" And as I sat, over the light blue hills
There came a noise of revellers : the rills
Into the wide stream came of purple hue.
'Twas Bacchus and his crew !
" The earnest trumpet speaks, and silver thrills
From kissing cymbals made a merry din —
'Twas Bacchus and his kin !
" Like to a moving vintage down they came,
Crowned with green leaves, and faces all on flame ;
All madly dancing through the pleasant valley,
To scare thee, Melancholy \ "
The " Sacred and Profane Love " of the same
painter, in the Borghese Gallery at Rome, is an
even more splendid example of colour and tone,
and is probably the finest of all Titian's works.
In Paul Veronese we find a cooler key of colour
generally, with a fondness for compositions of
figures with classical architecture, the rich pat-
terned robes and varied heads contrasting pleas-
antly with the severe verticals and smooth surfaces
of the marble columns — a sumptuous and dignified
kind of picture-pattern, and fully adapted to the
decoration of Venetian churches and palaces of
the Renaissance.
Madox Brown's " Christ washing St. Peter's
Feet," now in the Tate Gallery, is a modern
picture-pattern, and an extremely fine one.
These are but a few instances out of many, and
the subject of colour and pattern, like the ex-
pression of line and form, of which it is a part, is
so large and its sides so multitudinous that to deal
with the subject fully and illustrate it adequately
280
F. MADOX BROWN
would need, not ten chapters, but ten hundred,
and could only be compassed by the history of art
itself.
If anything I have said on the subject, or have
been able to show by way of illustration, has served
MADOX BROWN: "CHRIST WASHING ST. PETER'S FEET" (TAIE
GALLERY).
in any way to clear away obscurities, or to lighten
the labours of students, or to suggest fresh ideas
to the minds of any of my readers in the theory,
history, or practice of art, I shall feel that my work
has not been in vain, and, at all events, I can only
say that I have endeavoured to give here the
results of my own thoughts and experience in art.
281
CONCLUSION
Some may look upon art as a means of livelihood
only, a handmaid of commerce, or as a branch of
knowledge, to be acquired only so far as to enable
one to impart it to others ; others may regard it as
a polite amusement ; others, again, as an absorbing
pursuit and passion, demanding the closest devo-
tion : but from whatever point of view we may
regard it, do not let us forget that the pursuit of
beauty in art offers the best of educations for the
faculties, that its interest continually increases, and
its pleasures and successes are the most refined
and satisfying.
282
INDEX
Adaptability in design, 124-
126.
Animal forms, use of in de-
sign, 1 06 ; governed by in-
closing boundaries, 104-106,
IIO-II2.
Architectural mouldings, re-
lief in, 190.
Architecture, spaces for sculp-
ture in, 113-116.
Ardebil, holy carpet of the
mosque of, 243.
Athens, the Tower of the
Winds, 115-116.
Bari, i o ; the " Hundred Birds "
of, 69.
Birds, Japanese drawing of,
68, 69 ; decorative treat-
ment of, 215.
Blake's Book of Job, "The
Morning Stars," 19, 20, 152.
Border motives, recurrence in,
45, 46, 102.
Book decoration, 58, 59, 62 ;
example of page treatment,
60.
Botticelli, frescoes in the Sis-
tine Chapel, 226 ; render-
ing of the " Primavera " in
tapestry, 240 ; his " Na-
tivity," 272-275; "Madonna
and Child," 275-276.
Boundaries, definition of, 2, 3 ;
use of in designing sprays,
38, 39 ; in designing animal
forms, 104 ; influence of,
1 08; relation of design to,
109 ; decorative spacing of
figures in geometric, 105,
152-156.
Brush-work, 65-68.
Canterbury, St. Margaret
Street, 153.
Ceiling decoration, 1 36.
Charcoal drawing, 68, 70.
Chartres, carving on the
Cathedral, 197, 199, 201.
Chiaroscuro, 267-269.
Chinese porcelain, 101.
Colour, effect of texture on,
244 ; in stained glass, 252 ;
expression of relief in line
and form by, 256, 258 ; ra-
diation of, 258 ; comple-
ments in, 260 ; harmony in,
261; colour sense, 261,262,
colour proportions, 262 ;
importance of pure colour,
263.
Composition, formal, 152-156;
informal, 157-164.
Constantine, Arch of, sketch
of, 117.
Contrast in design, 101 ; use
283
INDEX
of, in pattern design, 166,
et seq. ; principles of, in black
and white, 206.
Corinthian order, Roman treat-
ment of, 192, 193.
Counterbalance, 43, 44, 95,
96, 97, 130.
Counterchange, in heraldry,
171-174.
Crivelli, "The Annunciation,"
276-278.
Cube, the, 73 ; use of in
architecture, 74, 77, 78; in
nature, 76.
Dado, use of the, 234.
De Hooghe, Peter, 267.
Desiderio di Settignano, relief
work of, 202 ; " Madonna
and Child," at South Ken-
sington, by, 202.
Design, linear basis of, 35 ;
technical influence on, 58,
59, 62 ; beauty in, 62, 63 ;
influence of material on, 64 ;
quantities in, 96-101 ; con-
trast in, 1 01 ; living tradition
in, 126; adaptability in, 124-
126; extension in, 126-131;
geometric structural plans
in, 130; essentials of, 138-
139-
De Wint, brush-work of, 68.
Diaper, use of m Middle Ages,
171, 174-175-
Donatello, relief work of, 202.
Drapery, tieatment of by the
old masters, 183-186.
Drawing in line, methods of,
6, 7 ; calligraphic method, 8 ;
tentative method, 9 ; Japan-
ese method, 10; oval and
rectangular methods, n,
12.
Diirer, Albert, his "Geo-
metrica," 5 ; roofs in his
engravings, 148 ; " The
Prodigal Son," 146; "St.
Anthony," 147; principle in
the treatment of drapery,
183, 184.
Egyptian sculpture, 192, 194-
196.
Emotion, linear expression of,
18-21.
Emphasis, 54 ; value of, 56 ;
effects of different emphasis,
57, 58, 59; in relief of
form, 1 80.
Equivalents in form, value of,
95. 96-
Extension in design, 126-131.
Figure composition, 160 ; ex-
pression of repose and action
in, 161
Figure design, relief in, 204-
207 ; graphic and decora-
tive treatment of, 213.
Figure designs, controlled by
geometric boundaries, 152-
156-
Flaxman's Homer, designs
from, 21.
Flowers, lines of characteriza-
tion in design of, 12, 13;
forms controlled by inclos-
ing boundaries, 1 10- 1 1 2.
Foliage, principles of structure
in, 143-146.
Form, its relation to line, 27 ;
importance of knowledge of,
31 ; choice of, 73, 79; ele-
284
mentary forms and their re-
lation to forms in nature
and art, 73-77 ; grouping
of, 83-87 ; analogies of, 89-
91 ; typical forms of orna-
ment, 92-95 ; equivalents in,
95> 96 ; variation of allied
forms, 103 ; governed by
shape of inclosing boundary,
105, 106, 112; relief of,
165, et seq. ; expression of,
by light and shade, 205, 209.
Frieze, origin of the, 113, 133;
and field, 133-135 ; use of
the, 236 ; treatment of, 240.
Fruit forms, treatment of, 88,
89.
Gems, engraved, 200.
Geometric forms, elementary,
73 ; structural plans in sur-
face design, 128-133.
Ghirlandajo, 226.
Giotto, "Chastity," 225.
Gozzoli, Benozzo, 226.
Graphic aim, the, in drawing,
29-31, 205, 208-211.
Grouping of forms, 83-87.
Holbein, "The Ambassadors,"
275-
Human figure, use of the, in
design, 104-107 ; decorative
spacing of within geometric
boundaries, 105-106, 107 ;
governed byinclosing bound-
aries, no, 1 1 2 ; principles
of line in, 142.
Indian ornament, typical, 212,
216; printed cotton designs,
246, 251.
285
INDEX
Inlay work, choice of forms
for, 81-83.
Japanese method of drawing
with the brush, 10, 68;
diagonal pattern, 87; colour
prints, 266.
Keene, Charles, 190.
Landscape, expression of storm
and calm in, 158, 159.
Lead pencil, 70.
Letters, formation of, 4; Diirer's
method, 5. *
Line, methods of drawing in,
6-12 ; quality of, 12-14 > the
language of, 23; comparison
of style in, 24 ; scale of de-
grees and qualities of, 24,
25 ; its relation to form, 27;
question and answer in, 35,
36 ; recurring, 45, 46; ra-
diating principle of, 46-50 ;
range and use of, 47-49 ;
choice of, 51 ; degree and
emphasis of, 54 ; influence
of technical conditions on,
58-62 ; controlling influence
of, as a boundary of design,
1 06, 108-113 » value of re-
curring, 119-124; combina-
tions of, 139; principles of
structural and ornamental
line, 140-145 ; selection of,
218, 219.
Linear expression, of move-
ment, 15, 1 6, 17; of tex-
tures and surfaces, 18, 19;
of emotion, 19, 20, 21 ; scale
of, 21 ; power of, 158, 160;
INDEX
of fur and - feathers, 208,
211.
Linear motives and pattern
bases, simple, 109-111.
Lippi, Filippino, study of
drapery by, 185.
Lorenzo di Credi, 226.
Lysicrates, monument of, 133.
Madox Brown, Ford, mural
painting at Manchester, 226,
227; "Christ washing Peters
feet," 280, 281.
Mantling, treatment of, 170-
173-
Medals, 200, 203.
Memory, importance of, in de-
sign, 39.
Michael Angelo, ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel, 225.
Modelling, principle of relief
in, 192.
Montague, mantling from Gar-
ter plate of, 173.
Morris, William, tapestry of,
236, 240.
Movement, linear, expression
of, 15-17 ; lines of, in a
procession, 163 ; in a danc-
ing figure, 218; in water,
221.
Mural decoration, 224, 225;
diagram of systems of line
governing, 231 ; scale in,
230 ; choice of line and
form in, 236.
Nauplia, Gulf of, coast and
mountain lines, 3, 215.
Nerva, Forum of, 192, 193.
Nuremberg, ceiling in the
Castle of, 136, 137.
Olive branch, study of from
nature, 30 ; decorative treat-
ment of, 32.
Ornament, typical forms of,
92-94.
Ornamental purpose, the, in
drawing, 29, 31-33, 210, et
seq.
Ornamental units, 94 ; use of
intervals in repeating, in.
Outline, origin and function
of, i.
Parthenon, the frieze of the,
46 ; sketch of, 114.
Pattern and picture, difference
between, 265 ; pattern-pic-
tures, 272.
Pen, the, compared with brush
and pencil, 71.
Pencil drawing, 70, 71.
Persian carpets, principle of
design in, 242; treatment of
borders in, 245 ; white out-
line in, 260.
Persian ornament, typical, 212,
217.
Persian rugs, value of different
quantities in, 98-101.
Perugino, National Gallery
triptych, 278.
Photograph, influence of the,
55, 56 ; principle of the,
187, 190.
Picture writing, 27, 28.
Pinturicchio, frescoes in the
Sistine Chapel, 226; mural
painting at Siena, 226; fres-
coes in the Appartimenti
Borgia, 238, 241.
Pisano, Vittore, medals of,
198, 203.
286
Poppy, horned study of, 33 ;
adaptation of for needle-
work, 34 ; sketch of on dif-
ferent coloured grounds,
257, 258.
Prints, principles of design for,
246-251.
Procession, lines of movement
in a, 160, 162-163.
Pyramid, the, 73 ; use of in
architecture, 74, 78.
Radiating principle of line, the,
46-50.
Raphael, study of drapery by,
1 86.
Ravenna, S. Vitale, sketch of
apse, 1 1 8.
Recurring line and form, 45,
46 ; value of in architecture,
119, 124.
Relief, methods of expressing,
165 ; use of contrast, 166;
decorative relief, 171 ; on
diapered ground, 174-175;
by simple linear contrasts,
174, 176-178; by linear
shading, 176, 178; by diag-
onal shading, 176, 178-180;
value of emphasis in, 180; by
light and shade alone, 187-
190; principle of in archi-
tectural mouldings, 190 ;
modelled, 192; in sculpture,
192-199, 201 ; Florentine
fifteenth-century work, 202 ;
natural principle of, 204,
207 ; by colour, 256, 258.
Repeating patterns, 36, 37, 1 29,
131 ; method of testing, 38,
41.
Rhythm of design, the, 32.
INDEX
Roofs, German, 146-148.
Rothenburg, roof-lines in, 149.
St. David's Cathedral, carvings
in, 122-124; Gothic tile pat-
tern in, 123, 125.
Scale, importance of in mural
decoration, 230, 232.
Sculpture, relief in, 192 ; Egypt-
ian, 192, 194; Grecian, 194,
196, 197; Gothics, 197; on
mediaeval tombs, 198.
Selection, the test of artistic
treatment, 214.
Shields, F. J., mural decora-
tion, 228.
Silhouette, 2, 14.
Skirting, the, 234.
Spaces, decorative, in design,
113; apparent depth or
width increased by use of
vertical or horizontal lines,
232, 233.
Spacing, mural, 230, 231,
^ 235-
Sphere, the, 73 ; use of in archi-
tecture, 74,78; in nature, 76.
Stained glass, principles of de-
sign for, 252, 255.
Surfaces, linear expression of,
18.
Tapestry, 237 ; Burgundian,
237, 239; effect of texture
on colour in, 244, 247.
Technical influence, the, 58-
62.
Textile designing, 62 ; ex-
amples of, 6 1 ; value of dif-
ferent qualities in, 97-101 ;
principles of, 241, 242;
colour in, 244.
287
INDEX
Textures, linear expression of,
18.
Thebes, sculptured relief at,
195-
Titian, " Bacchus and Ari-
adne," 278-280; "Sacred
and Profane Love," 280.
Tivoli, Temple of the Sibyls
at, 133.
Trees, effect of wind upon,
1 6 ; general principles of
line and form in foliage,
etc., 143-145.
Typical treatment, 31 ; orna-
ment, 92-95.
Valence. Aymer de, tomb of,
172.
Van Eyck, "Jan Arnolfini and
his Wife," 267, 268, 270,
271.
Variation of allied forms, 103.
Variety in design, 40.
Ver Meer, " Lady at Spinet,"
269-270, 272.
Veronese, Paul, 280.
Visch, Martin de, brass of, 173,
Walberswick Church, 121.
Walker, Frederick, 190.
Wall, decorative spacing of the,
234, 235.
Wall-paper, principles of de-
sign for, 36, 37, 246 ; rela-
tion between frieze and field
in, 133, 134.
Water, lines of movement in,
221.
Watercourse, lines left by a,
163.
Wave lines, 16, 17.
Westminster, vaulting of chap-
ter house, 50.
Winchelsea, tomb of Gervaise-
Alard, 120.
CHISWICK PRESS : PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
NC Crane, Walter
710 Line & form
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